Unless you’re planning on a encounter string, i.e. at least 3 encounters back to back, plan on building your encounter at the far side of Medium or short side of Hard.  You have to adjust this of course for the abilities of both your players and your player’s characters.  So start with medium hards before you go into hards.  I can realistically and demonstrably give my group, warden, avenger, ranger, artificer, warlock(barbarian) level+3/4 encounters.  And yes they’re hard but they’re doable for the most part. I’ve only had one character death from tossing the party into this mix as their sole fight for a day.  And that was due to bad death save rolls as well as heal checks.

When you’re building your monsters, remember that they’re going to be alive for all of maybe 5-7 rounds for the most part.  In the interests of making them interesting give them all 2 or 3 encounter only powers and give them a little bit of synergy among them. 

Example: A standard skirmisher might have his basic +7, 1d10+5 Warclub attack, then encounters of Smashing Blow +7, 1d8+5 and target is knocked prone.  Head Blow: +7 2d6+8 and target is dazed.  Target must be Prone.  And finally Aim Low: +7 1d8+5 damage and target is Slowed.

Then drop them in pairs or trio’s.  One of them does a Smashing Blow on a PC and another one follows up with a Head Blow now that he’s down and the last one Aim’s Low and slows the PC.   So now you have a PC that’s dazed, slowed and bleeding on the ground.

Typically that means he’s going to be able to stand on his turn or attack from the ground.  If you have a trio of these guys then they can simply alternate their three encounter powers over three rounds and beat the heck out of the PC.

The point of this is not, well mostly not, to kill a PC but to force others to interfere on his behalf.  A defender marks the attackers, a warlord pushes one, two people bull rush two of them, a wizard thunderwaves, an artificer thundering armours, whatever it takes to get them off the PC they’ve singled out.  In all things you as the DM should be striving to make them work together as a team, watching out for each other, buffing each other, taking hits for each other.

4th Edition is a balanced edition, significantly more so than any previous edition (please keep the 4e hate spam down about that).  As long as you follow the general guidelines or the Adenture Tools (well worth a one month subscription to get it and the Character Builder) it’s hard to build an unfair monster with just a tiny bit of common sense.   Some combination can be wicked hard, a creature with a minor action to knock prone and a bonus to damage on prone targets is harsh (Needlefang Swarm).  Creatures with auras that stack can be really harsh (Chillborn Zombies) or creatures that have resistances to damage and reduce damage at the same time (Wraith).  These are all examples of monsters that are significantly tougher than their level or exp value warrants as a result (and just bad monster design IMO).

Also as a general rule I really think monsters that Stun should used VERY sparingly.  I don’t use it all, forcing a player to skip their turn “Is Not Fun”.   Dazed is as much of a screw over as I will ever give a player in terms of costing them their turn.

But over time this balance design can lead to encounters that feel the same.  So don’t be afraid to take those guidelines and manipulate them a bit.  With just two or three tiny changes you can drastically alter the feel of an encounter.

By changing the hit points or attack bonus in conjunction with the damage dealt with a power you can rachet up the tension of an encounter in many ways.

As an example, let’s say I build an encounter that’s designed to depict a bandit party that’s venturing into hobgoblin lands to negotiate a deal and the players have been chasing them.  I put in one elite, 5 standards, and 5 minions and generate roughly a level+2 encounter as the culmination of a 3 encounter string, the first two encounters level/level+1 encounters with hobgoblins.

I take the elite and drop his health by 20% but I boost his damage output accordingly.  So he goes from 200 hit points to 160 hit points.  His average damage per round per attack goes from 15 damage to 19 damage.  He’s got a shorter lifespan but hits for more damage so it should equal out assuming no major ’swinginess’ in the attack rolls.

Two of the standards are his body guards.  They’re not ‘elite’ but I want to show them as being highly trained.  I boost their attack chance by +4 (20% more likely to hit) and drop their damage output by 20% (15 damage becomes 11 damage).

3 of the standards I want to be really annoying as a whole but individually they’re not much.  As a group of highly trained archers who go for the sure shot rather than the damaging shot,  I up their attack by +6 and drop their damage from 15 down to about 8.   So they’re a steady unswerving health bleed on the party.

You could also model the boss of this encounter as a little more brutish but not a true brute, a giant of a human who’s armed with a big slow greatsword, easy to get out of the way of but don’t let it hit you whatever you do.  Let’s decrease his attack chances by -6 and boost his damage by 30% instead.   So he doesn’t hit often but when he does, a player REALLY feels it.

As a DM if you take this to an extreme in terms of damage per hit and 30%+ is bordering extreme then you HAVE to keep an eye on your dice and your players.  You’ve changed the encounter from a fairly steady progression of damage sinking on both sides to something that with a little good/bad luck can be very swingy and really hammer your players and you’re not there to do that.  Or if you are you probably won’t have players for long.

With these simple few tweaks though you can have players leaning forward when the boss rolls, wincing as you roll high and breathing a sigh of relief when you roll low.   And cursing out loud as ‘those %$(!*% archers are chewing my ass off.  Would someone kill those little @$@*(*!s?!”

In terms of encounter make up, make sure to mix things up.  Sure throw in the encounter that’s six giant slug like abominations and make it a straight forward bug hunt.  Easy, simple, not complicated, something every group needs from time to time.

But your encounters that are comprised of intelligent creatures are very likely to run something like boss, bodyguards, guards with optional groups of support and minions.   Or that’s how I see it.  The boss is going to want at least one or two people dedicated to his survival in my opinion.  Warriors or casters that stick with him, intercept attackers that kind of thing.  Then there are the general purpose guards, standards that keep the attackers occupied while the boss does his boss thing, they’re the defensive/offensive line of your encounter.

Then you have support groups that consist of artillery, control and/or healing. Typically these should be the smallest presence on the field as they’re the ones that usually sit in the back and go with range powers, they die easily but sometimes getting to them is just flat out hard.

Minions are just that.  Masses of incompetents who die in a loud messy fashion to the enjoyment of the players.   And once the group gets past level 4 or so, plan on your minions having little to no impact on the battle other than to waste a round or two as the party AOE’s them down.   Any more I don’t even count them against the XP budget of the encounter unless they’re artillery that is going to be widely spread out.  It’s realistically impossible to spread out melee attackers, they have to bunch up to get at the players who typically hang out fairly close together. They’re there to make the heroes cool as they kill six guys with one blast, that kind of thing.

I’d also advise you not to get too crazy on your encounter makeup complexity.  The more creatures with different powers you throw out there, especially if you take my advice and give them all some ‘fun’ powers for you to play with, the more likely you are to forget to use them.  I regularly forget to use Immediate powers that I give to my creatures for instance.

Trying to keep track of multiple powers on multiple types of creatures in one encounter servers not much more than to slow things down. Any more I strive for (but frequently fail to accomplish) no more than 3 types of creatures per encounter although with humanoids it’s hard to do.  My bandit, slavers and hobgoblin tribes just like to cover their bases, they want front line, back line, support, artillery, control, pure power and leadership in every fight.  And it’s hard to say no to them as they make sense when they send in their manpower requests. 

Also keep your players’ characters’ abilities in mind.  A group with a lot of radiant output is going to rip your undead encounters to shreds.   A group without any way to control creatures should run into encounters with fewer but tougher creatures.  A group with massive amounts of AOE’s shouldn’t get encounters comprised of mostly minions as a steady diet.  A group without a lot of ways to spend surges during an encounter needs smaller easier encounters but more of them during their ‘work day’ or few but tougher encounters per day.  Things like this keep in the back of your mind as you’re planning their almost but not quite demise.

And the flip side of that, keep your players abilities in mind as well.  A group who’s sole tactic is “I got this one, you go get that guy.” needs a lighter hand on the encounter difficulty than a group that knows exactly how their powers mesh with the powers of the rest of the team and acts accordingly.

So to wrap this up -

• give all your creatures some nifty encounter powers because that’s fun for you
• don’t be afraid to deviate from the monster building guidelines but do it in a balanced fashion because that’s fun for the players
• don’t make your encounters too simple or too complex, not fun for you
• keep the abilities of your players and their characters in mind, not fun for the players
• and most importantly make sure you and your players are having a good time or you’ll be putting your books away to gather dust and that’s a very un-fun thing to have to do…

I hope this is of some benefit to someone, putting it down at the very least helped solidify it for myself and that’s never a bad thing. Next week (or month or whenever) I’ll try and come up with some thoughts on how to actually run the encounter and give you some excuses for why the archers are all focus firing on the cleric for the 800th time.

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Dragonborn with Maul

“You smell that?  What’s that remind you of?  Smells like… snake.” a harsh voice cut through the evening air.

“Hells no Marti, it’s something with scales alright but I’d say it’s more like dead rottin’ fish.” a sardonic voice replied loudly.

Elisssa shook her head slightly. On the whole living in Larkson was enjoyable but of late the Bain followers seemed to be getting more overt about their humanistic beliefs.

“Oh yeah Jakia, fish might be right. Something smells fishier than an unwashed doxie’s crotch.”

Elisssa snapped over her shoulder without slowing, “Don’t badmouth your birthplace, you’ll make your mom cry.”

There was a startled silence and then, “What the fuck?!  What did you say?”

Elisssa sighed, turning as she heard footsteps hurrying toward her.  Two humans were moving toward her from the mouth of an alley.  The one in front of medium build, hair tied back with dirty blue rag, the other one stockier with broad muscled shoulders.  Thugs the both of them was her first impression.

“Snake bitch you want to be repeating that?  I don’t think I heard you right.”

The stockier one spoke, “Marti, I done think she called your mom a whore.”

The other thug snapped his hand sideways and a iron club grew out of it, fashioned of linked steel piping. “Whore she may have been but she was human and no fuckin’ snake bad mouths a human.”

Jakia’s hands disappeared into his tunic coming back into sight with small metal cylinders that snapped open with a jerk of his hands into twin clubs. “Snake gotta know it’s place Marti and that’s down in the dirt on it’s belly.  You want to get yourself down and apologize now snake bitch and we might let you walk away in one piece.”

Elisssa heaved a deep sigh, sending a mental plea to her goddess, the mother of her race for the strength to not kill the fools in front her.  She eyed the approaching men, slowly counting to five to calm the heat that roiled just below her surface.  ”We can do this hard or easy.  Easy is we both go our separate ways now, no harm no foul.”

“Oh I think you like it hard there snake bitch.  How’s about we give you the hard way.” Jakai leered, holding one of the clubs suggestively at his crotch.  ”This ain’t nothing to what I got for you.”

Elisssa felt her thoughts bubble toward rage and opened her mouth, lightnings playing off her teeth as her inner energies began to race.  With a new found trick she snapped her own hand out and there was a sound of ripping leather ties as Rock Crusher leapt into her hand, the red runes on the flawless black iron maul’s head glowing with a dim light.

“You sure you want hard fuck face?” she snapped, lighting arcing from her teeth onto the maul.  ”You really really don’t want to fucking push me….”

The two thugs faces tightened and they started to spread apart in the street when a voice, tone casual, almost bored spoke, “Hey girl, who are your friends?”

All three of them glanced sideways to see another human coming out of a doorway, dressed in the red trimmed chain and leather of the city watch, the hilts of two swords rising up behind his shoulders and a long bladed knife on each hip.  He leaned against the door frame, cold green eyes boring into those of the two men. His arms were scarred with the reminders of over thirty fights in the pits and a jagged slash rand down his face.  The savage scarring detracting little from his otherwise good looks.

“Hey Torn, I see that the watch took you in.” Elisssa said, after the first glance she’d returned her gaze back to the men.

“Yeah, wasn’t hard, Hells if you defeat all their trainers in one go, they even make you a officer and put you in charge of shit.”

“You sidin’ with the snake?” Marti spat out.

Torn stepped forward, with a blurred motion and rasp of metal on metal he held a short sword in each hand.  The one in the right of arctic blued steel, the razor-ed edge crackling with lightnings identical to those dancing over the great maul in Elisssa’s hands.

“No, I’m siding with my friend.  Now get the hells out here before I have to call a corpse cart.  I hate the paperwork and reports I have to give when I have to do that. Just the thought of it really pisses me off.”

The two men glanced at each other then glared at the dragonborn and the veteran pitfighter. “We’re going. The stink here is about to make me vomit anyway.” Marti growled out.  He jabbed a club at Elisssa, “Just a little advice snake, mind your manners next time a human talks to you. There’s bad things other than snakes sometimes in the dark, you might just run into them.”

The two men turned and stalked away, Elisssa and Torn watching them go.

“What was that about?” Torn asked, sheathing his swords in a smooth crisscrossing of his arms.

Elisssa shrugged, “Bain followers I think.”

“Bain?”

“Pissy little god that thinks humans should rule the world and everyone else should be dead, pets or unpaid help.”

“And here I thought you had such a nice little town.”

Elisssa snorted, the remnants of lightning flaring out to light the minuscule blue tinted scales of her face, “They’re nothing, just some lowlives that need someone to blame for their shit.”

“Seemed rather more than nothing.”

“Nothing to worry about, all talk, they’d of threatened, I’d of warned them off and life would have gone on.  How’s Soozin?”

“Don’t think I don’t know you’re changing the subject El.  She’s fine, I got her a little room over on the east side of town, as a watch leader I get a house allowance and the gold that Torel loaned me she’s not going to need to work for awhile and I’ll start getting a pay sack in a week or two.”

“And how are the two of you doing?”  Elisssa chuckled as a rose of color bloomed on the fighter’s cheeks.

“Wha…what do you mean?”

She reached out and clasped his shoulder, “I may have scales and breath lightning balls dear friend but once you get past that I’m still a woman.  I see the way she looks at you and you her.”

Torn grinned, “I guess we’re going okay.  I was going to wait till you guys get back from that job you’re doing for the Council but I might as well tell you now . We’re going to have a binding ceremony next month after I get a little more gold saved up and I want you all to stand Witness for us.”

“I’d be honored Torn.” she replied leaning forward to brush his cheek with a kiss and give him a hug. “And the others will too or they’ll answer to me.”

“Such a fierce one you are Elisssa!”

Elisssa’s belling peel of laughter rang out through the darkening street, “Come and we’ll tell them now, we’re meeting now at our inn to discuss our trip.”

“I cannot,duty calls El. But look me up when you get back and we’ll make arrangements.”

“The gods themselves couldn’t stop me.  I’ll see you in a few days friend.  Take care of the little one.”

“With my life, El, with my life and more.”

With a final clasp of forearms they split up, the dragonborn warden heading north to meet with her companions…

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As much as everyone gives lip service to a ’sandbox’ world, “OMG you’re railroading them!”, etc. as a DM you, IMO, HAVE to railroad to some extent in order to give them the best possible gaming experience you can.  Mature, complex, interesting campaigns have a hard time finding fertile ground in a sandbox.  Sand just isn’t conducive to growth.

A sandbox is “Hey peasant, where’s the nearest dungeon?  No we already cleared that one, where’s the next one.” typically.  Or out of character, “Okay guys I have three modules for your level, which one do you want to do?”.  These can certainly be entertaining at the player level, social dynamics, the mechanics of the fights etc. But they’re hard to engage the characters.

I can improv aka play in a sandbox as good as many, better than most I think but I can certainly tell a difference in the quality of experience I can give the players by just spending a few minutes each day thinking on how things are going in the world.

By devoting a few minutes going over current events (assuming you’re doing more than dungeon crawling, a fine past time in and of itself) and putting yourself in the shoes of your NPC’s and their interactions with the PC’s you can come up with some pretty cool stuff I believe.   As an example, Biminey has transcribed details of their trip through Darkmith and sold it to the Temple of Eris (god of knowledge). As I was documenting his payment (125gold for the curious) on the campaign sheet for Biminey’s character I thought about one of the high priests reading these descriptions and realized from my one line personality note I’d scribbled out on him weeks ago that this could have a profound effect on the man.   And that effect is now going to flavor and color multiple interactions  that deal with the PC’s in specific and the NPC’s in general that might be affected.  And flavor and color add a LOT to a session.  No one likes bland white toast all the time.

Your own content also really really has to be flexible. Case in point the group in our last session derailed my story arc by getting captured. [Through all fault of their own. ]

Luckily this happened at the end of our session or it might have either resulted in less interesting events than I think it will now or I’d of had two options. Either called a time out while I rapidly regrouped or improv out the remainder of the session, the first has the advantage of better results, the later of keeping the flow of the game going.

Drastic events like the party getting captured by the bad guys when you’re not expecting it can certainly throw a kink in things. Or perhaps you have one key character in the group that your story arc is founded upon and that character dies. Do you have a backup plan to keep the story on track? Or do you toss out what you have and work out another arc? Do you sink to the level of “A wandering healer comes across the scene and agrees to resurrect the poor man if only you’ll go fetch him 10 belts from the orc tribes in the next canyon.”?

You have to consider these things when you’re working on your storylines. And you cannot possibly consider everything that a group of players might do or things they might simply not figure out, or figure out wrong and be unable to see other clues as result of their wrong conclusion.  But by taking the time to build up this gestalt image of your world between sessions you have a much better stronger tapestry that you can reweave around snags in the thread that might occur.

That’s not to say though that as a DM you don’t have to be prepared to lose work, some things you’ve worked so hard for just can’t be salvaged after the party goes off on a tangent. And that’s okay. There’ll be other times, other places, other campaigns if needed for those events to happen.

Look at every side trek, every derail not as an issue, but as  an opportunity to weave a stronger storyline that integrates the characters’ actions into your world. And integration is something that will involve your players.  This issue with the players being captured in my personal campaign is going to I think really expand some NPC’s in an interesting way, create at least a couple of memorable encounters and has sparked an idea that will have a domino effect that might see wrack and ruin in the region from yet another possible source than those already planned and that might actually cause a redirection of a regional force into a force of while not good, at least not evil.

All this because the players split up like so many chickens with a weasel dropped in their midst during a fight and got taken out by a group they should have been able to beat.  Players definitely get a ‘we always win’ complex and as a result not really take tactics or even thought into consideration.  It’s nice to throw them a curve like this and drive home the fact that they’re not always going to win and there are going to be consequences to losing even if it was unintentional.   In this case they’ve lost 1000’s of golds worth of magical gear, not to mention their basic gear that will have to be replaced from very limited funds.

Improving though with 4th edition can be hard, especially if you lack experience with the system in specific or gamemastering in general. With older editions it was pretty easy to ‘fake it’ with monsters you had to add at a certain point. You just needed a to hit number, a defense and some damage. Monsters were boring, the vast majority of them simply swung, bit or clawed at the players for ex damage in a Flinstones Boxing methodology (aka stand there taking turns swinging till someone died) And those were very easily faked, especially if you had any experience with older editions as faking things is mandatory for a DM as the math was so broken overall.

But 4th edition improv is harder. Sure you can come up with a basic creature fairly easily, just use the basic monster value formulas and you’ll have balanced monsters quickly. They’ll just be a bit boring until you have enough experience under your belt to knock them out.  And remember battles that contain a single creature type can also contribute to boring battles so you have to knock out, print out, look up several creatures per battle.

As a result of the more interesting monsters in 4th, it helps if you have some basic creatures printed out of an appropriate level range for you group, pick a couple of of each type, then just ‘reskin’ them as needed. A level 3 orc can just as easily be a level 3 guard, a war dog, an undead abomination, whatever. Just print out a few in preparation just in case.

So to wrap this up, remember, think about your campaign when you’re not playing it, just a few minutes a day can work wonders.  Think about your NPC’s and what they might want and their reactions to the actions of the PC’s.  And be flexible, be prepared for the party to jump the tracks by having a good idea of the world in general and being prepared with materials as filler/stop gap to give you time to work the derailment into your campaign and make it stronger as a result.

A derailment doesn’t always have to mean a train wreck….

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Shük

[DM's Note: Overall this was a really good session, lots of character involvement, dialogue, sleuthing and clues and all that. We learn a little about the character's past lives, they learn about their city, there's intrigue and mystery, all that kind of thing.  You know, the stuff that 4th Edition makes impossible according to some people because it's just warcraft on paper.  This is one episode of the podcast that I'd recommend you download when it's available if you like that kind of thing.]

We open our movie with our vaunted cast, Torel, Dra’kin, Elissa, Stak, Biminey continuing their journey homeward.  Biminey glad to be alive on this fine day, feeling like he might have almost been dead just moments earlier.

The terrain grew rougher as they continued moving north toward home.  Small rolling hills turning into craggy ravines and cliffs.

It is one such ravine, almost a canyon that they run into their first major issue. A band of goblins trying to be sneaky and the group spot each other at the same time about 100′ between them.  The goblins scream and shout and attack.  Moments later a giant rounds the bend in the canyon, all 11′ of him and the 8′ tree trunk he’s using as a club.  A club that hurts a lot for those that try to stop it with their chests.

Boulders fly, clubs swing in might arcs and goblins die in rapid succession. Deep rough breathing from a nearby cave is heard as Stak passes near and when Dra’kin is knocked flying by a blow from the club landing in the mouth of the crack in the cave wall.

The hill giant retreats from battle leaning on his club, using the language of the goblins he asks if the group wants to join him, “Yu tough’ens, me yu jone up, we split 50/50.”  Torel and Biminey are the only ones that can understand the large creature and Biminey translates the conversation to the others.

But dragonborn fury is not to be denied apparently and Elisssa cuts the discourse short and attacks the giant who roars out in fury and slams Torel back in righteous anger.  The avenger goes flying through the air landing heavily on his ass.  Regardless of their own inclinations the rest of the group backs the dragonborn’s play the giant soon lies dead at their feet.

A giant wineskin filled with the finest dwarven ale is recovered from the giant, a wineskin that they discover much to their delight refills every day with ale.  In addition a magical belt is removed from the hill giants, a belt that Biminey re-sizes to fit Torel.

They continue their climb up through the mountains, avoiding or appearing too tough to take on and the rest of their journey, although tense and eventful yields no further obstacles and within days they arrive at the gates of their home town.

They’re welcomed as semi-heroes for having escaped the slavers and bought drinks and food and lodgings provided without cost to them.

The town Council summons them and there they meet Garon, Lerik and Teagon, the councilmen.  Also, and un-coincidentally, they’re also the three richest men in the city.  Lerik owns merchants and shops, Garon owns the majority of the fishing fleets, and Teagon runs the shipping, primarily by boat to the cities further inland but with some wagon trains.

During their interview it becomes obvious quickly that Lerik, a middle aged human male, doesn’t appear to like non-humans and in fact later on they discover that Lerik is a follower of Bain, a human-centric god who’s teachings propose that humans should be in charge of anything important.

Garon, another older human male, is intensely interested about the group, his daughter and son having also been stolen during the slaver raid during the Spring festival. Unfortunately the group does not recall his children, both in their early 20’s as having been part of their group although it’s possible they were among those first lost in the sealie attacks.   Those first couple of days after waking on board the ship were hectic and many people died, unknown and buried at sea.

Teagon, an eladrin also male, age unknown but mature seems indifferent to the group.

The group told their story, changing details and saying they sailed the slaver ship they’d woken on to the coast, landing it in Darkmith and then glossing over the details of their journey.  Specifically keeping all details of the elemental ship out of their story.

Part of an old argument among the council comes out during their interview, Garon wants to hire mercenaries from the the mostly dwarvish settlement inland.  He doesn’t want anyone else lost or to lose someone to slavers ever again, Lerik believes it would be a waste of money, the slavers have already hit the city and undoubtedly will have moved on.  Teagon seems to be worried only about the cost, how can they afford it now. Perhaps after the fishing fleet’s harvest starts up in earnest.

Garon gives each of them 100 gold of his own money, assuming they have no money of their own after their harrowing escape to purchase necessities.

Torn steps forth and tells the group he’ll take charge of Soozin’s protection, as it turns out she’s an orphan now, her father was one of the one’s taken by the slavers and her mother died in childbirth.  He intends to join the guards, his skills with a blade should be of use to them.  Torel steps up and gives him 50 gold to provide for the two of them while the group figures out it’s next moves.

They decide to stay together, their thoughts on that elemental ship they left back in Darkmith.  They spend a few days in town, getting reacquainted with old friends and lovers, Dra’kin renewing his relationship with Shük, a half-orc girl that favors her human side, while Biminey visits Sushanna, an acolyte of the Temple of Eris that he’s friendly with from his visits there going through the god of knowledge’s vast collections of scrolls and manuscripts.

Stak and Torel, both mostly alone in the city venture out together several times, gathering news of current events while Elisssa visits her clan, enjoying several celebrations of her safe return.

Stak and Torel among other things learns of a trader ship in the harbor which is rare in these times of unsafe travel, a typical year might see 4 or 5 trading ships from up or down the coast.

Dra’kin asks his sometimes girlfriend to look into Lerik, the man’s non-human bigotry bothers him, while Biminey uncovers in his trip to the Temple of Eris that all information on Darkmith is in the forbidden archives, Merkin, high priest of the temple blatantly refuses him access to those scrolls saying some knowledge should not be known.

A few days after their arrival they’re summoned before the council again, the council is obviously in disagreement but Garon informs the group of the losses they’ve taken on their trade ships returning from inland being taken by bandits and the gold taken.   He proposes that the group recover the gold if they can and he will keep 10%.  Larceny is in their hearts as they ponder this, “Who’s to say how much we recover exactly?”.  Lerik, the bigot, seems in favor of the idea only after his associate, a slightly oily human by the name of Tanner whispers to him about how “wouldn’t Bain approve if these beasts and snakes were killed trying to recover it? ” referring to Stak and Torel, both shifter born and Elisssa obviously.  A whisper overheard by a couple of the sharper eared members of the group.

Teagon seems almost against the idea, saying it’s a waste of time, and they’d be throwing the groups lives away in vain.

The group tells the council they’ll consider the idea and give them an answer in a couple of days.

The ship in the harbor is visited, found to be carrying a high number of skilled fighters, perhaps uncommon or perhaps necessary for any ship to be able to sail the seas and make it safely from port to port.  None of the group who see the ship can say for sure if it’s a slaver ship, a suspicion born of paranoia perhaps as Garon tells Dra’kin when the warlock visits him, pressing for Garon to get on board and search the ship.  Garon agrees to consider the information and says he’ll try and arrange for a visit.

While discussing his inability to get into the archives he needs to get information on Darkmith and the elemental ships, Shük shrugs, “is that all?” and has one of her twin halfing lieutenants show up.  Meri nods, “I can recover items from there for you, it’s a bit of a hassle, hard to get to even for me and I can’t remove much without it being noticed.”

They arrange for her to remove one scroll from several shelves a night and in that way they can zero in on the area that they need.

Torel and Stak interview known survivors of the bandit raids on the ships, finding out that no one before seems to have done much in the way of information gathering and by getting maps they’re able to narrow down the area where the ships are taken by quite a lot.  They also find out that the ships that are taken are always ones in the top percentile of gold coins carried.

This arouse a lot of discussion and suspicion on who might be slipping information, or be behind the stolen gold shipments being stolen.

The group decides to go after the gold thieves, arranging for Meri to continue bringing out scrolls and a forger of Shük’s acquaintance to copy them for Biminey’s return.

After some discussion the group heads upstream to the area where the ships are taken and there Stak finds a trail that leads them to a hidden camp.   He sneaks close but not quite close enough to overhear an interesting conversation that occurs between a man dressed in city clothing who enters camp and appears to be warning the bandits that there is someone after them.  The leader of the group turns and starts barking orders for the bandits to break camp.

Stak sneaks out to tell the group, noticing in passing a hidden archer he missed on the way in.

The group tries to stealth up to the clearing but are hopelessly incompetant and find the camp deserted although the bandits gear is still around.  They circle the camp, spotting a couple of archers moving around as they do.  Stak cuts through the camp and the trap is sprung.  Bandits rise up out of shallow pits covered by bedrolls.

The group is dispersed in all directions while the bandits tend to focus their attacks better and although the bandits take their losses in the end Elissa is down, a glaive at her throat while another rests over her heart and a razor tipped arrow is pointed at her left eye.

The eladrin, seemingly bored, speaks loudly enough to be heard across the clearing, “Surrender now or the dragonborn dies.”

With Elissa down and certain to die, Biminey down, bleeding from multiple wounds, Stak with a growing puddle of blood growing under his feet and Torel facing two more archers solo and bloodied, the group drops their weapons and is captured.

They’re expertly tied up, all their gear except clothing removed and bags put over their heads and that’s where we leave our party to await their fate at the hands of their captors.

[DM's Afterword: This outcome was unexpected although at one time I did have some thoughts on increasing the size of the force to make capture a higher percentage chance that I was thinking it would be.  As a result I can work with this outcome, just didn't expect it to happen.  It does show the necessity of focused play in 4th edition.  ALL of the bandits were hurt, most approaching bloodied status but the damage was simply too spread out.  Since even someone down to 1 hp still deals full damage, hurting them doesn't do much, removing someone from the battle is what makes a difference.

The aftermath of this is that, obviously, the group is going to lose their gear.  I'm so NOT a believer in captors conveniently storing all the capturee's gear in an unlocked chest in the next room and leaving a key hanging just out of but not quite reach to the cell door.  I think that's lame.  But because I'm granting bonuses to the characters inherently as a function of being heroes, it doesn't matter.  Gear only gives them gimmicks the way I do it, it doesn't impact their base attacks and defenses etc.  Sometimes gimmicks are useful but this way they're not necessary.

Because of the holidays the next session will likely be on January 2nd.  Stay tuned to see how our plucky but disorganized heroes get out of this mess. ]

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And I’m not saying that if you did run into one of these you wouldn’t find them in pairs or even trios…

Or for the worst offenders, say perhaps a group that killed a high ranking hobgoblin officer that was out gathering toys for the grand hobgoblin marshall’s birthday present, you might run into a whole herd of the things.

You can get a PDF and the monster builder filer here [Download not found]

Darkmith by Day

[Warning this is a rambling post that doesn't stay on topic very well or at all really...]

I was explaining my style of DM’ing to someone and thought it might be something that someone else might get some usage out of.  Or might just rile them up if they think differently but I’ve been riled up by the ‘wrong’ way that other people play only to eventually make a change in the way I play. [Ramble Alert!] As a prime example, I had a long discourse with someone about when to grant experience in Neverwinter Nights modules.  I was still very much in the ‘per monster killed’ mindset.  You kill a monster, you get experience.  His was you awarded experience when the players reached a certain point in the game.  Eventually, not then because he was being an ass about it but eventually, I decided that made a lot more sense to me as a DM.  It takes away the [True Story Alert] meta-gaming aspect of XP “I only need 10 exp to level?  I lean out the window and throw a dagger at someone on the street.” and makes it easier to balance things out if you have any kind of branching encounters planned.  If there’s no way the players are going to be anything but 5th level by the time they make it to the Sacred Tombs you can build the Sacred Tombs way in advance and not risk them being 3rd level or 7th level.

I really don’t do trivial encounters; even back under older editions I stopped pretty early.  I lean heavily toward combats that mean someone might get really hurt. (And yet I’ve killed fewer characters in 3 decades of GM’ing than I have fingers).  My harshness is I make the players work for their victories and I enjoy the reputation I have as being harsh and deadly in spite of the fact that in reality I rarely kill anyone.  I just make them know they were in a fight.  You do have to kill someone every now and then though just to show them that they’re not immortal…

4th Edition really lets me go to town in this regard.  Since the players are back to full after each fight and with limited options for them to spend their ‘working resources’ aka Healing Surges this means a) their work day is long enough that sleeping periods fall naturally rather than being forced by lack of resources and b) they can keep going typically for a few encounters even at the level+3, 4, 5’s that I toss at them.

Granted I haven’t really used a ‘dungeon crawl’ yet with 4th edition.  Where there are encounter after encounter after encounter.  But I have problems with those anyway.  I’m as guilty as the next person early on in my career of having a series of rooms connected by passageways with essentially random monsters tossed into each one.  Each battle very sandboxed, you fought these creatures and the ones just down the hall ignored the fight and patiently waited their turn to be slaughtered.  Part of that was definitely a bit of “Oooh the party hasn’t fought one of these before, or this, or this, or this.” and I’d munge them all together.

Then I started doing themed dungeons, waaaaay back in the day when even the commercial modules were still very much a list of encounters built by rolling percentiles.  The Swamps of [Clare] Grogan (Scottish actress that I thought was hot and I thought the name was very dungeony) which was a swamp themed dungeon, lizardmen (and women), giant snakes, crocodiles that went down for like 5 levels.  The Lair of the Eternal Trickster, a dungeon comprised of probably 50% traps combined with creatures.  Party would find or trigger a trap that alerted mechanical guardians or undead, creatures that could be ‘realistically’ parked in an alcove to wait for their queue and didn’t have any intelligence or programming that would allow them to respond to anything other than their set queues.

It was about this time that I started making dungeons smaller in terms of overall population and larger in terms of encounter population.   Or I’d do the ‘obvious’ and stream the bad guys in as a seemingly never ending fight.  Attack the guards in the front room and the guards down the hall would take a round or two to wake up, grab their gear and charge up, yelling for help which would get the guys in the next room up etc and so on.

I find myself now with fourth edition expanding further on this.  Fewer encounters but more meaningful encounters.  Perhaps I’m merely playing to my thoughts or the inclinations of my group but a series of trivial, everyone is down a surge or the cleric used up a couple of CLW’s fights bore me and I presume/assume they bore the players if there’s no story arc reason for the fight.

With 4th Edition I can fairly safely assume that the party will have a full set of hit points after each fight, when they reach the point they don’t then they’ll rest and recover them.  Sure they might be down a Daily power or out of their Action Points but numerically Dailies just aren’t that big a deal, sure they can cut a round or two out of a fight or if everyone burns them on one boss cut that fight out of the day in short order.  But they’re not a valid excuse to have a 5 minute work day.  The only real valid reason to extended rest IMO is when you’re out of surges, not because everyone’s burned their daily powers.

But I digress. [Hence the disclaimer at the top of the article now]

To get back on point, I don’t personally see a need for trivial encounters.  They spend valuable limited game time on something that is a foregone conclusion that the players will win and win without threat.   The only time I plan on using trivial encounters, trivial meaning anything that’s not on the Moderate difficulty scale at least, is when they’re strung together as a series of encounters without a break or when they forward the storyline or add another element to the story.

Case in point, the [I've Got Crabs] encounter in session 2 of this encounter (yes I give my encounters goofy names in my notes), it was a fairly trivial encounter, the party was never in any real danger.  But their focus on dealing with the crabs charging them rather than the crabs menacing the other huddled survivors of the slave ship on the beach cost one of those NPC’s their life.  Perhaps a point lost on the group but still a point that I wanted to make an effort put out there and try to broaden their scope and awareness.  Did it work?  Doubtful.  But I feel better for making the effort.

In my upcoming session I’ve got a skill challenge among others where the characters will try to escape the city.  If they fail on any of the three rounds (I use my own skill challenge design) then it triggers an encounter or two with the ferals of the city.  But these will be narrated out and the party will simply start the next round of the challenge a couple of surges lower.  This will continue throughout the skill challenge.   The only times I have planned to break out the miniatures is when it’s a fight worth playing through tactically.   There will be days in their overland trek that will have them facing encounters but these are again just narrated out, “Over the last three days the lands have changed from tundra to low hills as you continue your homeward bound journey.  Through the use of your skills you’ve managed to avoid most of the dangers of the lands although dusk of one night found you battling for you lives against a wolf pack lead by a strange black eyed wolf with boney spikes protruding from its joints.  They were fought off through the use of your talents and the black wolf seemed to really fear the Torel’s abilities that were infused by the power of his god.” [Just made that part up but now I'll use it Saturday.]

In this particular instance the success or failure of the challenge will cost them surges that they won’t have for the next round.  And of course, obviously?, there will be a tactical encounter at the end of the skill challenge and their success or failure at the challenge will have a direct impact on that encounter.  (in more ways than one but I won’t spoil that right now in case they read this before Saturday).

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I’m glad there weren’t any Windows ME visitors or I’d have to really question whether hell actually did freeze over.

This is just an example of tweaking an existing creature.  I took the Hill Giant which is a level 12 brute, dropped his level in the character builder, reset the damages a bit to nudge him closer to a soldier while keeping the defenses and hit points etc of the brute, and added in a couple of powers as the default Hill Giant would be boring as a boss encounter.  With the other things I’ve got planned for this encounter I think it’ll be a good BBEG level encounter for the group.

You can grab the monster builder file here [Download not found] and an image of the creature below you could print out.

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Hill Giant Runt

Thorns x 4
Dark moon monk
Larege water elemental
Human bandit x 8
Quickling runner x5
Medium air elemental
Human rabble x3
Halfling tombseeker
Grimlock barbarian x 2
Grimlock minion x3
Orc wizard x2.

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I’ve literally done the a wizard has called you to the tavern to discuss a proposition with you approach but that was decades ago before it became a trope and number 1 on the “Ways you should never start a campaign.”

Another time I had the players start a campaign dead.  That was fun writing their charater background stories.  I can be vicious when I need to be.  Actually I should post those campaign background stories here.  It might be interesting to someone.

Let’s see, I’ve had the town attacked by some kind of attacking attacker and the members of the party were the best of what’s left to go rescue the captives.

They’re all strangers to each other in a caravan heading to somewhere and it’s attacked and they’re the only survivors and band together for strength in numbers.

They’re strangers or acquantances that are pastsies for a regicide and are forced to band together to clear their name.  Oh and escape very painful deaths at the hands of prince’s torturers.

They already are a adventuring band although that obviously takes pretty much no thought or planning.  “Okay you’ve all been adventuring for awhile now.”

Hmmm in all these years I guess I haven’t really started too many campaigns.  But then it wasn’t unknown for my campaigns to last 18 months of 4-6 sessions a month.   Long sessions, like 12-16 hours.  Long gone are those days though.  That kind of thing is for the younger ones without lives filled with outside demands.  Sometimes I miss those days.

I believe a campaing should have a good start, something unique, tailored to the characters and the players, a strong middle point that perks up the players after they’re starting to get blase about things and a very memorable ending that the players will be talking about 2o years later.

As a DM / GM that’s your job really.  To provide the framework that the players build on.  And a shoddy foundation is no way to build anything although with enough mortar and duct tape you can certainly add support to a shaky start.

If and that’s a damn big IF, if you can get it from your players, try to get them give you some idea of what they think their characters are like prior to starting on the heroic path.  Some event that occured during their characters life that is a high or low point.  Honestly it takes just a few minutes for a player that’s truly interested in their character to come up with this kind of thing.  And your campaign should be the better for it.

Have an idea where you’re campaign is going.  I know players tend to ‘miss the island’ and a campaign can definitely derail into another direction you didn’t expect at all but if you start with an idea where the players are going to be about midway through the campaign you’ll end up with a better one.  If you’re good at improv you can improv the whole thing but having the luxury of time to work on the midgame gives you a better campaign.

And definitely have an ending to it.  Whether they get their own castle, save the world, recover Vecna’s left testicle, whatever, have an ending to the campaign.  Don’t drag it out past your’s and the players’ enthusiasm.  Things need to have an ending or all the struggles along the way are pointless except for the purposes of survival.  And just surviving isn’t really all that interesting on a global scale.

Anyway, lacking anything better to post about, I thought I’d share this. As always it’s personal opinion and your opinion could and probably will and honestly should vary to some extent.  Don’t be a sheep after all.  If they spark an idea for you awesome.  If it wasted your time reading it, well not much I can do there.

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And why even bother buying that level 30 magic item when you can save 2 million and buy a level 28 magic item and hire several kingdoms worth of armies to keep the riff raff away.

I’ve always thought the economies of any system where you can live fairly well for about 20 gold a month and very well for 100 gold a month cannot easily absorb the influx of wealth that occurs because of treasure seekers.

Even if the merchants have two pricing schemes, one for normal people and one for adventurer’s they themselves will swiftly gain money to the point where other merchants will charge those merchants adventurer’s pricing and then so on.

A classic real world example is the issues of the U.S.’s Gold Rush in the 1800’s where gold miners (read: adventurers) brought in a lot of gold and destroyed local economies, towns sprang up just to deal with the miners at crazy prices.

A classic semi-real modern example that a lot of people might be familiar with is World of Warcraft.  I quit back during the Burning Crusade expansion and even then I could farm someplace like Shadowfang Keep for Assassin’s Blades and get two to three hundred gold for them for level 19 twinks.  Why?  Because the economy was screwed due to the influx of gold from long established characters raking it in at the high levels.  Low level gear was crazy priced to the point that new players couldn’t afford anything ‘cool’.

That same thing would happen across any fantasy world as adventurer’s hammered the local economies with gold without such modern miracles as global banking institutions.

Is there a solution?  Of course, hand wave it out the window and ignore the real world issues in buying and selling of things that cost more than a kingdom might have in total coinage.

Is there a solution that fits a fantasy setting?  Separate magic from gold completely.  Have your dragon hordes with 100’s OR 1000’s of golds, not 100’s of thousands.  Put in place rituals that let the characters power up their swords and turn them into something that grows with them or use any of the ideas to remove magic bonuses from items and give them to the characters innately and the magic items become flavor gear with bonus abilities.   The character has a flaming sword, not a flaming sword +1.  I understand the DMG2 has some guidelines on this now as well as the community stuff.

Anyway, that was my random thought about something to post today.

But harsh?  Definitely.  I once had a specialist archer lose half his hand to critical fire damage (because he thought the flames were illusionary) and be unable to use a bow for half a campaign.  I once had a fighter lose his bonus attack for several episodes because he lost ‘his’ sword and had to make do with substitutes that weren’t as balanced or designed for him.  I once had a paladin pick up a cursed box and become a fighter until he atoned for his ’sin’.   I’m harsh, there’s no getting around it.

Players as a rule tend to push the boundaries of what they can and can’t do.  DM’s tend to push back to keep things in check.  It’s a lot like the parent – child synergy.  No you can’t stay out till 3 in the morning.  Yes if you’re back by 9:00 you can drive the car.  The primary reason is, or at least for me is, to keep the party in balance so that it doesn’t devolve into one person doing everything and the rest sitting back and playing second fiddle. So when the problem child wants to do a triple back flip through the bar and be able to backstab the BBEG because ‘he’d never expect it’ I have to raise the eyebrow and go “Orly.  You think that would really work? No.”

But I’ve mellowed with age. Or perhaps more factually I’ve got more experience at what will really unbalance a campaign and block it and what would simply be unrealistic, cool certainly, but unrealistic and go ahead and allow it.

And you should try to hit the same balance.  It can be a hard line to stick to and fraught with peril.  Allow something too overpowering and the player is going to want to do it all the time.  Don’t allow anything and you’re stifling the creative flow and removing those ad hoc high points that get talked about for years.

Sometimes you don’t see the ramifications of your actions and have to retro them out somehow. As a example is the one time I actually played in a campaign the DM gave the dagger specialised fighter a ring of vampiric regeneration.  This made the fighter invincible as long as he hit about one out of two times he’d get back any lost hit points.  This nullified both the encounters and the other players as it became a “Let Temple get them all, we’ll sit back here playing chess.”  The DM solved the problem by having a fish leap up while were were crossing a lake and bite his finger off taking the ring with it.

As a general rule, you should try very hard not to lock a player out of playing.  This means no long term stuns or disabling conditions.  Don’t kidnap one player and not the others.  Don’t ’steal’ items from them for anything but very short term.  Keep an eye on your monsters so that they don’t have uber defenses against what the party is putting out.

A player’s turn shouldn’t consist of making a saving throw or worse being able to do nothing but wait for someone else to get to him.  Granted this is going to happen from time to time but do what you can to reduce the frequency of it. You can’t always save the stupid though. Some players (or characters) are just not bright and as a result they will through their own actions lock themselves out of playing.  And that’s okay.

I’m very much not a fan of the Stun condition in 4th Edition and I’m retconning it out as dazed on every monster power. I’m not a fan of the Dying condition and the death saves to be honest which is why I came up with the Weebles Wobble rule where I came up with a Mostly Dead condition.  This lets a player be dying and still be an active participant in the game.  I’ve had a couple of notes from people that have tried it with pretty good success and their players reportedly really approved of it. And it makes for a pretty cinematic visual.  Rarely in action movies do you have people laying around dying and not doing anything.  But tons of examples of the heroes limping forward barely concious, blood streaming off them but refusing to lay down as they blow some rubber suited monsters cojones off and snap out a one liner as they do so.

So in closing, don’t screw your players.  Let them play, it’s why they’re there after all.

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Curse you Evolution for continuing to raise the stakes with your evolving diseases!

As a player you should remember that you’re part of a group.  You’re not going to be the sole focus of attention so when it’s not your turn let someone else have a bit of spotlight. It’s discourteous to the other players to not give them their chance at the mic.

As a player you should remember that you’re part of a group.  Step up and be heard, get involved.  Don’t just sit back observing or staring off into space. It’s really discourteous to your DM who’s gone to the trouble of creating something for you to ignore it.

I’ve had to deal with both types in my career as a DM/GM.  They’re both more than a bit of a pain after months and years.

Things I’ve found annoying from players in large quantities, and that based on the voice inflections and reactions from Dm’s in the podcasts might be fairly universal.

Constantly going “No he can’t/doesn’t/wouldn’t” to the DM in any form as a common reaction to the DM.

• DM: “Okay the fell necromancer shifts his gaze at you, Alofel and necrotic energies flare up and blast outwards at you.”
• Player: “No he doesn’t.  He doesn’t have that power any more.  It’s a typo.  Wouldn’t he hit Steve instead?  He misses.  I duck out of the way.  I’m immune.”

Once is okay, twice is within reason but constantly over and over ‘retorting’ with some variation on the above every time the DM announces a NPC’s attack gets old fast.

Immersion breaking ‘conversation’ or ‘dialogue’ between a character and an NPC.

• DM as Necromancer: “I shall have your soul chained in a everlasting fire for daring to interfere you pathetic mortal.”
• Player: “U r gay.”

Once in a while, sure it CAN be funny.  But constantly chanting how gay what is supposed to be some scary evil dark wizard is, gets very unfunny pretty quickly to most DM’s I’m betting, myself included.

Most DM’s do what they do to bring to life a cooperative story set in a ‘real life’ world where characters, pc and npc, act in realistic ways.  It takes interest and energy to do all the extra work involved.  Players who show up so they can be the asshole (or pschopath/klepto)  in the game they can’t be at the office tend to be a bit of a burden on the creative energies and interest required to be a DM.

What I call psuedo-cheating (don’t get me started on real cheating).

• DM: “Does a 22 hit you Barkil?”
• Player: “No.”  a minute goes by, “Yeah it hits.”

• Player: “I rolled a… 23.”
• DM: “Okay that hits.”
• Player: “No it was really a 3.”
• DM: “*sigh*”

Please remember during my little mini-rant, that I’m ranting about consistent, frequent, constant behaviour of this type. Like any decent DM I can overlook, ignore, or go along with a reasonable level of this kind of thing.  But constantly doing it gets old.

And no this isn’t some sly subtle jab at my players, due to RL, lack of interest, medical reasons, I don’t have enough consistent players to have a group of players that I can enjoy being with to have a RPG group going on.  At best I get to DM the occasional one-off or playtest or ‘delve’.

As a player remember the DM is supposed to be having fun too.  Try to gauge his or her reactions to your behaviour and adjust accordingly.

Because if the DM isn’t having fun, especially over the course of several sessions, then you’re going to be looking for a new DM.

Any gaming group whether it’s chess, bridge or rpg’s is a social group with the implied social contracts that are always the price of being in that group. You have to be social and sociable.  If you like roleplay then deal with there being rollplay going on.  If all you want to do is roll dice then deal with there being roleplay going on.  And as a DM I know this can change per player on a session basis.  Sometimes a player just wants to roll dice and loot the corpses of the bad guys.  And sometimes they just want to sit back and have an animated discourse on the qualities of the rope they’re purchasing.  But remember you’re one of a group and they also vary in what they want to do.

Know what your character can do.  I personally find myself questioning why players want to bother showing up when they show no interest in the mechanics of their characters much less the game system that’s being played.  Constantly having to wait for a player every session while they ‘re-learn’ their characters abilities or worse, just ’spam’ a single abilitiy over and over regardles of its effect or efficiency simply because they don’t want to be bothered to learn more can be annoying.

It’s not very enjoyable for DM’s who spend excess hours over and above the actual session hours coming up with the adventures, plots, hooks, bad guys, who have the not so easy task of juggling tens of ‘characters’ during every combat, of keeping things in balance for the players so it’s not a cakewalk as well as not instant death, of remembering what’s happened before, what they want to happen and steering a plausible path between those points to have players express a serious lack of interest in what’s going on at the table.  [Massive run on sentence of the day.]

I have a saying, “Looks like apathy has reared it’s head, we’re done for the night.” and it’s had to be brought into play more than once.  When computers started to intrude on gaming sessions, whether it was Doom when we first got PC’s or Ultima Online when we first got MMOG’s  or whatever.  Once the conversation’s saturation point became something other than the game at hand, I’d shut it down.  When I’m running something, I’m there to run it, not talk about the current hot topic.

So as a final wrap up, I think this can mostly be summed up with “As a player in a group game, be courteous.” or in layman’s terms: “Don’t be a dick.”

Or the odds are very good there won’t be a social group anymore.  At least for you.

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Makes for some really good idea fostering since they’re easily ‘consumed’ and aren’t burdened with giant blocks of stats and all that so you can ‘microwave’ them in a minute or two and go “that’s cool” or “meh” without spending a lot of time at it.  Then you can go stat them up into encounters of your own tailoring.

All the listed ones are good but I thought this one in particular would have some really good ‘visuals’ and could be adjusted with custom monsters pretty easily for any level.

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XP Encounter Difficulty: Level 7+4
(Used on a level 7 party, but it is a level 11 encounter)

Brief summary: Adult White dragon blasting the snow away from graves awakening the dead.

Area setup: An island in the middle of a icy river with precarious stepping stones. The island has a big graveyard, the graves are covered by snow.

Enemies:
Adult White Dragon Level 9 Solo brute with 20% fewer hp, so award 1600xp
3xChillborn zombie Level 6 Soldier
3xMad Wraith Level 6 Controller

Enemy setup:
The Dragon awakens as the party bicker like hell crossing the river, fights them as they come onto the island. It uses its breath weapon to blast the snow away from some graves awakening the chillborn zombies the following round. It stays flying and uses its breath weapon a few rounds later to awaken the Mad Wraiths in the same way

How it went:
The archer in the party was scouting and noticed the dragon, shot it and started the fight with only two PC’s on the stepping stones. Otherwise it went about as planned. One of the fighter pushed the gravestones over the chillborn zombies as they awakened, slowing them by one round. (I didn’t let them use the aura when they had a gravestone on top of them). The dragon never landed and flew away after getting down to 25% hp.

Actual Difficulty:
The encounter is a little easier than it might seem, as the dragon uses it’s breath weapon to uncover the graves and the undead used some rounds getting up of the graves. Difficulty about as a level 10 encounter. The players used all available dailies.

How well did it work(on a scale of 1-10):
The multiple enemies that had to be handled and the big bad guy made for a very interesting encounter for every character type. The encounter has plenty of suspense and the characters feel threatened but not overwhelmed. I would give it an 8.5.

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This time let’s focus on a non-system, non-genre post intended to help anyone who’s going into the storyteller seat whether it’s Heroes or GURPS or Vampire or Top Secret or Warhammer FRP or FUDGE or… you get the point I’m sure.

If you’re wanting to know how to be a good or at least competent game leader (whatever the title might be) here’s some things that I’ve come to believe over the course of my gaming history that might help you.

• Know your material
• Do your prep work
• Keep things moving
• Be descriptive
• Give each player focus
• Don’t bog down
• Keep things moving (yes it’s important enough to list twice).
• Play to your players
• Get rid of distractions
• I am your father

Know your material – Know the adventure you have planned.  YOu don’t have to know it forwards and backwards but be familiar with it.  Have some idea where a creature might run for reinforcements if things go bad for him.   Have an idea of the capabilities of the obstacles that the players will face.  Is there an obvious synergy between some of the forces you have arrayed against the players?  If not an obvious one then try to figure out one. The start of the game should NOT be the first time you crack open the module if you’re using something you didn’t design.  Know the basics of your gaming system, again you don’t have to know every in and out but have a basic understanding of the game.

Do your prep work – Have cheat sheets (you can find them all over the place including this site) for the information you’re going to need all the time during the session.  Reduce the “Steve what’s your _____?” and “Does a 16 hit?” type questions to a minimum.  Make handouts of any ‘notes’ or clues the players might find so you don’t have to hold up game play to slowly read things out while a player writes it down.  Make loot lists on postit notes so again you can simply hand the note to the party leader and not have to wait for the party scribe to note everything down.  Yes this is more work for you but it’s work you can do in your down time aka non-game time.  Which brings us to…

Keep things moving – Don’t have long pauses of silence from you unless you’re listening to your players.  I HIGHLY recommend you listen to the various podcasts out there, RPGMP3, WOTC’s Penny Arcade, Gamer’s Haven etc.  Listen to them in the car or while you’re spacing out at your desk or before you go to sleep.  Take notes of when things slow down.  Inevitably it’s when the DM is reading his material, or looking something up or is just distracted.

Be descriptive – You shouldn’t go, “the goblin rolled a 13 and his damage is 2d6 and you take… 8 damage.”  Use something like “Iowna the goblin stabs you in the thigh with its none-too-clean javelin all the while yelling taunts at you in goblin most of which seem to be describing how unappealing looking you are.  Take 8 damage.”  Be descriptive, even if it’s the 8th office the agents have searched, add a little something, “Apparently Ms. Jenkins the CFO likes her pron because the screen saver on her workstation has a all nude chippendale’s slide show going on it.  A quick search though and you’re pretty sure the datavault is not in here. “  Give descriptors on the smells, the sounds, the visuals of the areas, the objects in them.  Paint a picture through the character’s senses for the players to be drawn into what they’re going through.

Give each player focus – Each turn focus on one player and draw them out about what they’re doing, get them to describe their attack or action in something more than “Does a 19 work for you?”.  Instead try to train your players over time to instead think more along the lines of “I parry the bastard’s blade and then try and gut him for what he did to the healer.” Don’t do it in strict order but more or less randomly but get the players involved.  And to do that you need to know your material so you’re not pre-occupied with trying to figure out what your guys are doing. The third installment of the Penny Arcade podcasts are a good example of Scott Kurtz seemingly to finally ‘get it’ or at least able to pretend to get it.  The interaction between Binwin and the boss Dwarf about Binwin’s ancestry/clans is awesome.  You want that from your players.

Don’t bog down – This is a sneaky way to reiterate keep things moving. Don’t let yourself or a player bog the game down for minutes long stretches.  If you don’t know a DC just use level + 5/10/15 for easy, medium, hard.  Hand wave the crap out of the game rather than let momentum die because someone spent 15 minutes trying to find some rule.   Either give it to them or don’t give it to them and just make a note to look up the real rule later.  This really a subset of Know your material but important enough to bring up individually I think.   Momentum keeps players involved and interested.  And interested players are what the whole point of being there playing these games is about.

Play to your players – It doesn’t matter if you spent hours and hours planning out an awesome murder mystery campaign.  If your players want a hack and slash campaign you’re screwed.  Go with it and give them their hack and slash.  You can’t fit square pegs in round holes.   If they’re playing some scenario they don’t want to they’re not going to be interested and uninterested players = epic session fail.  You can’t force a horse to drink and you can’t force players to enjoy something they’re not intersested in.  You need to be upfront though as to your limits.  I refuse to run evil campaigns for example and I refuse to allow evil alignment as I’ve yet to seem them used as anything other than chaotic psychopath justifications.  If you have limitations like this you just have to let them be known up front so everyone doesn’t waste their time.

Get rid of distractions – Turn off the electronics.  Cell phones, smart phones, pda’s, laptops, televisions, radios, turn all that crap off.  Put the pets outside or another room with door closed.  Get rid paperbacks and puzzle books.  Flat out tell people, either you’re here to play this game or you here to text, read, do sudoko or surf the web.  If it’s the latter there’s not point in us trying this. If you want music then use CD’s or MP3’s, commercials are distractions, distractions bog down game play and that leads to disinterest.

I am your father – Like it or not as the DM the role of parent typically falls to you in most groups.  It’s usually your task to keep people focused on the task at hand but you also have to allow them their dick tuna times as well.  Chris Perkins I think does a pretty good job of this, letting the players derail everything and then smoothly gets it all back on track again for the most part.  You’ll typically be the arbiter of “I don’t like how Bill is such a loot whore.” and “Steve keeps running off by himself.”  Just use your best effort in these situations.  Worst case you have to get rid of a player.  Worst worst case is you can’t get rid of a player for various social reasons and you have to quit playing.  Been there done that and it sucks.

These are a few observations I’ve made over the last 28 years of being a DM/GM in more systems than I can remember.  They might be nothing but ass or they might help you out, you’ll be the final arbiter there. If they do help then awesome.

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You can use the images below or you can down the pdf’s [Download not found], [Download not found], [Download not found], [Download not found].  I’m also using the new Export function of the Monster Builder and you can grab the .monster files – [Download not found] if you kinda like these but want to tweak them to your own needs.

It’s interesting but for any non-published stuff I find myself just making my own creatures.  That’s another subtle but very huge draw/benefit of 4th edition.  That you can make almost auto-balanced creatures without any issue that are actually interesting.

Got to take my boys to a birthday party so I can’t really expand on this but surely these can give you some ideas…

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Hanged One

Steel Thewed Zombie

Pyre Dead

Tortued Remains

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I’ve used Rat Swarms and Drake Swarms to good effect, the adjacent attack can be a constant brutality if you’re rolling well against the players.

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Swarm Template (Elite Soldier)

Vulnerability 10 close and area attacks.

Saving Throws +2

Action Point 1

Hit Points +8 per level + Constitution score

The creature gains the Swarm keyword.

Size increases by two steps (tiny > medium, small > large, medium > huge, large > gargantuan). Reach remains the same as that of the original creature.

Mounted creatures can be turned into swarms. Use the size of the mount (usually large) to determine the swarm’s new size. Use the mount’s speed to determine the swarm’s speed.

Powers

Swarm Attack
Aura; the swarm makes a basic melee attack as a free action against each enemy that begins its turn in the aura. The aura’s range equals the reach of the original creature.

Swarm Defenses
A swarm takes half damage from melee and ranged attacks. It is immune to forced movement (pull, push and slide) caused by such attacks.

Swarm Movement
The swarm can enter or move through an enemy’s space; this movement does not provoke opportunity attacks. An enemy can enter a space occupied by a swarm, but the space occupied by the swarm is considered difficult terrain, and doing so provokes an opportunity attack. A swarm can squeeze through any opening large enough to accomodate even one of its constituent creatures, i.e. it counts as two sizes smaller for the purpose of squeezing.

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The idea is apparently one proposed by the DMG2 (don’t have a copy yet) where the actions of the players can earn them achievements.

If you’ve played many steam games (or most xbox games?) then you’ll be familiar with this concept.  I know I spent some time with L4D for instance getting the various achievements (PC version) and prior to that I enjoyed the random “You’ve earned the Rocket Man” or whatever achievement in Half Life 2 EP2.

Tracking the things necessary to unlock them though might be a big PITA.

Steam Like Achievment Unlocks  by King Nate

You could always assign RPGA-like Player Rewards benefits to the achievements.

Here’s some examples…

Giant Killer Achievement
If you slay a creature at least two sizes larger than yourself you unlock this Achievement.
Benefit: Once per Gaming Night (Adventure) when you encounter any creature at least two sizes larger than yourself, you can gain 1 action point.

Dragon Slayer Achievement
If you slay a dragon you unlock this Achievement.
Benefit: Once per Gaming Night (Adventure) when you enoucounter a dragon, you gain 1 action point and +4 bonus to initiative.

Fearsome Gaze Achievement
If you successfully make an opponent surrender by using the intimidate skill during combat you unlock this achievvement.
Benefit: Once per Gaming Night (Adventure) you can gain either a +2 fear bonus to your next Intimidate skill check (until the end of your turn) or you can attempt another Intimidate check on a target you failed to Intimidate during combat.

Opportunist
If you successfully hit 10 enemies with Opportunity Attacks during one level you unlock this achievement.
Benefit: Once per Gaming Night (Adventure) you can use the Rogue’s Sneak Attack class feature.

Feign Surprise
If you are first to act during 10 initiatives during one level you unlock this acheivement.
Benefit: Once per Gaming Night (Adventure) you can act during a surprise round in which you are surprised.

Twist the Blade
If you make 10 Critical Sneak Attacks you unlock this acheivement.
Benefit: Once per Gaming Night (Adventure) you can deal maximum damage with your sneak attack. You may do this after dice have been rolled. You may also spend an action point to roll an additional sneak attack damage.

Cheat Death
If you failed two death saves and succeed with the third you unlock this acheivement.
Benefit: Once per Gaming Night (Adventure) you can roll two dice taking the better result for all death saves until end of the encounter you use this acheivement.

Or instead of giving benefits like this you can also hand out points per achievement. Players can use these points for whatever you come up with or they can be bonus experience points. __________________

The idea is to print and cut these out and then fold them in half.   Fill out both sides of the initiative cards, one side that faces the players only has a name on it, the other has some fairly relative information, your needs may vary but this is what I want at a glance.

Drop the cards in initiative order on your DM’s screen, because of the table I use for gamin I’m going to make a simple upside down T out of some oak and plexiglass (mockup over there ->) and hang them on those.  Then you can slide them back and forth etc.

The status tokens are also printed and cut out and you just drop appropriate ones over the cards, that should make it pretty simple and braindead to remember who’s taking ongoing damage, who needs to save for something, whether a condition runs out on a save or end of turn etc.

Anyway if you like them then feel free to use them.

People are scared, and now few people dare to sleep alone.  Even so people are still dying.  Tales spread of a large cat being seen prowling around or even leaping from the windows of those found dead, a great beast of a cat with green glittering eyes that glow from the shadows.   As the days go on, cats are hunted down and killed of all sizes and still the deaths continue.

A call has gone out for any brave adventurer’s that can help the imperiled village and their rewards will be great (well as great as a village of sheep farmers can offer).

I forsee a party passing through and hearing of the troubles or actively seeking it out.  They’ll investigaet the area and if they have good nature/perceptions they might find odd prints outside the house of the most recent dead.  An arcana, religion or history checks might give them clues as to the creature they’re looking for and this might lead them to search abandoned houses in the village since the Breathstealer is nocturnal.   The searching of the houses could have some non-related encounters.  Perhaps that run across a small chapter of thieves or thugs.   A house with a small crypt below it that has something dank and gross in it.

I think I’d lean toward them finding out a potential target of the creature, perhaps they’re smart enough to spread some gold among the beggars and orphans to keep an eye out, or maybe they get a report that a giant cat has been seen stalking around a particular house.  The breathstealer would stealth attack one of them leaving him dazed and bloodied on the ground perhaps and then retreat only to attack again from another direction much later on another solo target.

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Anyway here’s the [Download not found] in PDF or you can use the image below. -

breathstealer

But we also want high level monsters to be heroic in nature to take down.  A village should really PREFER to call a Hero to take care of their pesky dragon problem.

So what’s standing in our way?  The way Defenses and Attack Bonii go up primarily.   You need a +20 to hit an epic creature even after rolling a 20.

So let’s just yank that whole level based increase in defenses and to hits.  To avoid changing the base percentages we subtract the same value, in this case Level / 2 from everything.

BUT, this still leaves creatures, both PC and NPC getting tougher as they go up.  Their hit points go up, their surges go up, their repertoire in the form of increased power output in both quantity and quality go up. In addition for the PC’s gear will add up to +6 to defenses and attacks based on bonuses (another option would be to tie these bonuses to their level and remove +x from all magic items but that’s a modification for another day).

So let’s ‘do the math’ with a sample -

20th Level Soldier Ice Devil -

• Pre-Mod – AC 36; Fort 33; Reflex 31; Will 29.   Attacks: +23 – +27
• Post-Mod – AC 26; Fort 26; Reflex 26; Will 19.  Attacks: +3 – +7

20th Level Defender (auto build dragonborn avenging paladin) -

• Pre-Mod – AC 34; Fort 32; Reflex 29; Will 29.  Attacks: +12 – +31
• Post Mod – AC 24; Fort 22; Reflex 19; Will 19.  Attacks +2 – +21

Direct Comparison Player Versus Monster -

Paladin VS Ice Devil -

Pre-Mod -

• Valiant Strike – +27 vs 36AC  = roll 9 to hit = 60%
• Certain Justice – +31 vs 36AC  = roll 5 to hit = 80%
• Entangling Smite – +22 vs 29Will = roll 7 to hit = 70%
• Rule of Order – +27 vs 33Fort = roll 6 to hit = 75%
• Righteous Inferno – +12 vs 31Reflex = roll 19 to hit = 10%

Post-Mod (-10 20/2)-

• Valiant Strike – +17 vs 26AC = roll 9 to hit = 60%
• Certain Justice – +21 vs 26AC = roll 5 to hit = 80%
• Entangling Smite – +12 vs 29 Will = roll 7 to hit =70%
• Rule of Order – +17 vs 23 Fort = roll 6 to hit 75%
• Righteous Inferno – +2 vs 21 Reflex = roll 19 to hit = 10%

As you can see the percentages are identical.

10th Level Soldier Genasi Stoneshield

• Pre-Mod – AC 26; Fort 24; Reflex 21; Will 20.  Attacks: +14 – +17
• Post-Mod – AC 21; Fort 19; Reflex 16; Will 10.  Attacks: +9 – +12

10th Level Dragonborne Avenging Paladin

• Pre-Mod – AC 27; Fort 24; Reflex 20; Will 21.  Attacks: +6 – +18
• Post Mod – AC 22; Fort 19; Reflex 15; Will 16.  Attacks +1 – +13

Pre-Mod Player Versus NPC-

• Valiant Strike – +18 vs 26 AC  = roll 8 to hit = 65%
• One Stands Alone – +6 vs 16 = roll 10 to hit = 55%

Post-Mod (-5 10/2) -

• Valiant Strike – +13 vs 21 AC  = roll 8 to hit = 65%
• One Stands Alone – +1 vs 11 = roll 10 to hit = 55%

Again the percentages are identical for obvious reasons.

But by subtracting level/2 from everything we end up with an epic boss fight something like this that doesn’t require a level 30 just to be able to hit it with anything approaching regularity.

Ancient Gold Dragon Level 30 Solo (Monster Manual 2)

Post Mod – AC 29; Fort 27; Reflex 29; Will 27.  Attacks +17 – +20

A level 0 commoner only hits on a 20. Nothing changed there.  But if this was a level 15 dragon (or a level 15 player trying to kill the level 3 town guards) then the commoners would certain have a decent shot at it.

A level 10 Paladin at +13 vs 29 AC hits on a 16 or better and has a 25% chance.

So now we have heroic tier Heroes that could conceivably take on a level 30 solo creature.

They’re going to spend all day hacking at it given that it has 1088 hit points but in theory a ‘doable’ amount of level 10’s could defeat this thing.   And that’s what we’re looking for isn’t it?

I think by using one very simple change to the numbers we extensively broaden the range that any one creature is ‘viable’ and keep things balanced and allow for creatures to get tougher as they level by the very fact that they can take more damage and do more damage.

Obviously this would need to be played out but at first glance I’m not seeing anything that screams “Don’t bother testing, you’re just wasting your time.”

One thing to be aware of is that powers that grant bonuses are increased in value now, but I can live with that.

And just to get rid of my own beef with Skills in 4th Edition let’s get rid of the Level/2 bonus to skills.  If a character wants to get better at skills they can specialize in them through feats, increase the base stat of the skill, or use magic items.   This means that skill challenge difficulties are drastically reduced in complexity and are viable for the life of the character.  The same goes with traps and anything else that requires any kind of skill based rolling.

The Proposed Change –

Subtract Level / 2 from all Attack Bonuses, all Defenses and all Skill Bonuses for both NPC and PC.

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Conan wasn’t a god.  Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser couldn’t kick Orcus’ ass.   Elric, Doc Savage, Robin Hood, Arthur, none of these were demi-gods.  They were good, no arguing that.  But they still had something to fear from a village full of farmers and pitchforks.  A level 30 currently could take down a good sized city solo.

It’s been ‘threaded’ a few times off and on and I’ve probably linked it here somewhere but I thought I’d think about this -

What about removing the plus per level/half level?  If the +to hit and -to hit (aka defenses) both go up at the same rate does it really matter what that rate is?  If the player needs a 13 or better to hit at level 1 and a 13 or better to hit at level 30 has anything really changed at all?  What if we segmented attacks and defenses, skills by every 5 levels with some variance obviously.

Additionally this let’s us do away with +’s on weapons and armour and instead just add +1 to hit to the players directly every 5 levels and +1 to their defenses that these items grant?  This allows a character to keep that Flaming Longsword they found at level 2 and it’ll be relevant for the entirety of their characters life if they wish.    But if they for some reason lose their heirloom sword right before the fight against orcus they’ll be able to pick up something else because that +6 bonus is inherent in their skills, not their gear.   I do know you can use rituals to power up gear but that just rarely if ever happens in fiction.

Anyway, just a random idle thought on flattening the curve for myself.   DND is probably not the best system to promote such a radical shift and it’s definitely not for every player or group.

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I do have some caveats -

The sessions are at my house and I have three small children that will be around during part of any session.  Not only do they like to observe gaming sessions their computers are in the same room that I game in.  As a result there are certain ground rules on behavior and what I’d be looking for:

• Language and social behavior is an issue in general with me and in very specific when my children can hear and observe  it.  If you can’t keep it clean then you’re not a good fit for me.
• Must be able to play without arguing,  cheating or lawyering up.
• Must be able to tolerate children in a civil manner.
• A relaxed casual player would be a much better fit than a hardcore.
• No mind altering substances tolerated.
• Must provide own transportation.

About the group/gamesstyle/times -

• Sessions are Saturdays from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and 2 to 4 times a month.
• Location is in the Tulsa / Broken Arrow area of Oklahoma.
• Existing participants (3-4) are older, 40+ years old.
• Held at a private residence with 3 small children on site.
• Game system is 4th Edition DnD (no knowledge of system necessary).
• Dinner (pizza) and basic refreshments (tea, water) provided.
• Good aligned and action party only, no chaotic psychopath rogues or lawful stupid paladins.

So if you’re in the general area, think you’d be a good fit, then contact me and we can schedule a trial run.

keywords to influence searching returns:

Looking for players tulsa

Looking for DnD players

Looking for players broken arrow

DnD in the tulsa area

dungeons and dragons tulsa oklahoma

*Dick Tuna – Phrase coined by Wil Wheaton, Penny-Arcade and PVP-Online players during their podcasts. Funny but not appropriate for a 5 year old.

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Tit

So here he is, nothing special really but if you need a fire based elite in a hurry he might work.  And here’s a PDF if you like that kind of thing. [Download not found]

Edit: Added image for him.

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Tit

I ordered ’sample’ pack of the Alea Tools, specifically “One-Inch Neo-Markers – Game Master Pack 01″ and “One-Inch Neo-Markers – Red 10 Pack” along with some of “Miniature Conversion Circles – One-Inch”.  The order was shipped prompty and correctly.  Each set came in a clear plastic tube with a higher quality than average stopper.  Odd thing to notice I know but there you go.  The tube itself was typical of the type and if you’ve ever bought a tube of dice you’ll be familiar with it.   Each set of markers also included a few of the conversion circles.

Quality on the markers was decent but it’s hard to be awesome or crappy with what’s essentially a molded two part plastic disk.  Each has a ‘rare earth’ magnet inside that allows them to stick together.  The magnets are fairly strong and I had no problems with their stickiness.

The conversion disks are essentially the same flexible magnets you’d find in any craft section of a department store but with an adhesive backing that’s pretty good or seems to be.  There is an issue, not with the quality but with the purpose.  They’re designed to stick to the bases of the miniatures.  Well the bases of the miniatures are ANYTHING but standardized and on many (most?) you’ll find the magnet is too big and sticks out a bit.  That’s a fault with the lack of a standard base size on Wizards part and not with the idea directly.

Another issue that may come up is that the bases have a lip on the bottom of them.  So when you stick one of these magnets to it, you really have a very small surface area that is going to be attached.

But they’re cheap enough I suppose that eventually if you do lose some you can replace them.  I will offer the observation that if you filled the bases of your mini’s with something, maybe Mighty Putty (RIP Billy), they’d probably be a lot more secure and probably permanent.

All in all I’d recommend them, they make marks, status effects and all that very easy to keep track of.

Now on to the Magna Maps.  These were as well shipped promptly and correctly.  I ordered two of the 2′ x 3′ maps because that covers about 75% of my map surface.   My map level on my gaming table is roughly 35″ by 55″ so I did have to cut one inch from the long way but it cut very easily.  And now I have two two foot rows of 1″ squares I could use for something.

The material is very much the same rubberized substance that refrigerator magnets are made of. Except it’s not magnetic per se. It’s also not terribly ’sticky’ in terms of magnets sticking to it.   The more powerful rare earth ones have a decent grab to them but the weaker ones like the conversion disks barely stick at all.  I think that’s a combination of two factors though, the material is just iron impregenated rubber, not iron and the conversion dicks are also just iron impregnated rubber albeit magnetic iron (or something to that effect).  Two weaks don’t make a strong in this case.  But if you’re using Alea’s Neo disks or something similar then they’ll stick well enough.

With all that said I think they’re both useful.  Are they worth the money? Meh, you can certainly get by without them.  They add a bit of geek chic to your table but that’s about it.  But sometimes geek chic is worth the cost to me. You’ll have to be the judge of that for yourself.

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I’m linking the two latest ones here -

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I’m don’t agree, perhaps a tiny bit I can understand the basis of it but over all no.  But I’m looking at this as roughly a 99.9999% DM role of 25+ years viewpoint.   I think players should play their characters the way they want and build them the way they want (outside of high end power gaming builds).

If a player wants to play a ranged rogue for instance, I don’t have a problem with that.  Sure a ranger would make more sense, perhaps a lot more sense, but if that’s not what the player wants, it’s fine with me.  It’s the characters who can deal 49d6 at level 5 because they’ve found all the loopholes in the rules that I have a problem with.

Now the DM though should be aware there are other players at the table.  If one player is horribly sub par and the DM doesn’t take this into account when designing encounters then yes that can impact the other players entertainment but that’s on the DM to adjust to the players, not force the players to adjust to the game.

I put a lot of onus on the DM (and I’ve rarely played as a player) to insure that the game is fun for everyone and to adjust things, fudge encounters, dice rolls, add extra waves or dynamically add hit points or subtract them etc to make sure it is.  But I don’t believe it’s the DM’s job to ‘fix’ a player who’s playing a class in a manner that’s not ‘optimal’.

But I’ll give you an example of where a DM IMO should intervene – A cleric that decides he won’t heal or want’s to ‘charge’ the other characters for healing, that’s when the DM steps in and say, “No you can’t do that in the middle of this session while they’re in the dungeon.  Once they’re in a position, i.e. town, to make alternate arrangements for healing then yes what you decide is between you but you have to realize they’ll probably just get rid of your character one way or another under such an arrangement.  But right now you need to keep healing.”  <-  True story.

But DM’s, just let the players play, as long as they’re not cheating, being assholes or disrupting game play by playing their Chaotic Psychopath alignment, if they want to play a wizard that fights with a sword or a rogue that uses a bow all the time (without the Combat Advantage at Range  feat), or just a warrior who only uses a staff, far from the most ‘DPS’ build in the world, then let them.  They’re there to have fun too and until their fun seriously impacts the groups fun then it’s all okay.

At the very least, if their style of character building doesn’t fit your style of DM’ing then let them know that another group might work better if you or the group as a majority isn’t willing to make allowances.

Or that’s my opinion.  But then opinions are like assholes… 

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Like the others I plan on putting together a small binder for the players to put these in along with their quest cards so at the end of the campaign they’ll have a nice log of their character’s lives and times.

You can grab it here – [Download not found]

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But for some people it’s not as great an experience.  They have the DM who TPK’s them their first session.  For other’s they have players who power game to the point of complete imbalance or just flat out cheat.   I really hope that most people fall at least somewhere in the middle if not on the good side of the curve.  When everything ‘clicks’ a PnP gaming session can be a truly awesome thing.   When it ‘unclicks’ it can end any chance of another one.

My last DnD campaign ended with a TPK because after several months I was tired of the cheating, the bickering, the attempts to not play nice with each other.  So I quit fudging the dice, this was under 3rd Edition and a DM who didn’t fudge dice invariably stood a good chance of wiping out a group when the group had no concept of being overmatched.  And that’s what happened.  I let the dice roll in the open and fall as they would and unsurprisingly enough the bad guys slaughtered them.

For awhile now my group is too small and sporadic in attendance to play anything RPG’ish.  I prefer 4 to 5 players + 1 GM/DM.  I’d like to add a couple of players.  But I cringe at trying to find two people who’ll fit our playstyle and not be asshats.  So I was thinking what about a not so implied social contract?  Something up front that both sides can actually read and have a good idea of what they’re getting into.

So I rough drafted the below, it could stand refinement, not so wordy and all that but at least it’s a stepping off point.

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Dungeons and Dragons – A Social Contract

As a DM I will endeavor to provide each player with an entertaining event.  I will strive to insure that all characters receive an equal amount of the spotlight and will do my best to provide sufficient variety to tax the needs of each characters potential and abilities.  I will work to corral players who go off on tangents to the detriment of the session.  I will show up on time and prepared to play, I will not let rules get in the way of fun and will use the rule, “Say Yes for now.”, in the case of a disagreement on rules.  I will acknowledge that without the players there would be no game.

As a Player I will endeavor to be interested in the events that are transpiring in front of me.  I will attempt to not waste time due to inattention, lack of preparedness or attempting to lawyer up on rules. I will show up on time and prepared to play.  I will make an effort to engage all players opinions on how the group should proceed and not attempt to overshadow any or all of them.  I will reign in my ability to design powerful characters for powers sake with the knowledge that too broad a disparity in power makes the game less fun for every one else including the DM.  I will not bend the rules or cheat.  I will acknowledge that without the DM there would be no game.

But at least they noted it, they admitted it and they attempted to fix it.  I’m not sure it’s ‘fixed’ as well as it could be, see my comments below the quote but at least they made an effort right? It’s not often you’ll find someone that comes out and say, “Okay you got us.  We pushed out some crap and we’re sorry.  Here’s something that we spent some time on instead.”  Kudos to them.

Now if they could just publically admit their forums suck as well and fix those.

Quoted Text Copyright Wizards of the Coast 2009- re-posted here without permission -

Today, we posted a new version of the Class Acts: Ranger article that originally appeared on July 13, 2009.

To put it bluntly, the previous version of the article was of unacceptable quality. You, the readers, correctly pointed that out and we agreed. Hence, these revisions.

We apologize for this lapse in quality.

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Thank you, and good gaming

I’m looking at it, the powers that is, and they’re still not… quite up to what I’d call good?  Example, the level 1 exploit, the wording in the last sentence should read, IMO, “If both attacks hit the second slide up to 3 squares”.   It’s a little bit of a silly power.  The power states you have to slide the creature adjacent to you.  So if you hit twice you essentially spin in place 180 degrees with your target impaled on your blades, you have to based on the original wording, slide the creature 4 squares.  No options, what if you just want to use the power to hit your target twice WITHOUT sliding him?  You can’t by RAW.

The level 7 attack, the last line IMO should read “If both attacks hit, the extra damage is equal to 2+ your wisdom modifier.”  Otherwise if you don’t have a wisdom modifier you’re actually hitting for less damage then if you hit with only one attack.   At the very least it should say “…is equal to 1+your wisdom modifier (minimum of 2)”.   It’s phraseology and terminology like this that cause all those RAW versus RAI issues.

The artwork is less than stellar.  It’s not horrible but the way the assumed ranger is holding those axes it’s like he’s hitting people with the flat of the blade, not the edges.

The first one was in the Tomb of Horrors.  Remember that Sphere of Annihilation mounted to the wall?  Got my first one there.  And by kill I mean permanently dead, ne’er to be seen again.

Then there was the campaign that all the characters started off by dying, it was a plot thing so I’m not sure if it should be here but I’ll include it.

The character I vaporized with flame by an ancient red dragon.  So much damage in one hit that we both decreed there wasn’t anything left but a pile of ash.

The warrior that was chopped to bits by monofilament wire set across a pit and he was pushed into it.  Ugh.

The warrior that was impaled on a iron spike that shot up his… nether region and out his head and to add insult to injury was then hit by a 10d8 surge of lightning.

The ranger that was blasted into nothingingness, not even pile of ash remaining.

The party that sacrificed their lives so that their paladin could cause the birth of a goddess and then go quietly insane trapped at the center of everything and nothing.

Yes I can honestly remember every one of them. Odd how that is isn’t it.

It’s a good read for most people I think, especially for those who say roleplaying is dead.  It’s only as dead as you let it be.

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Quote:

Here’s why minatures fuck up our roleplaying. Actually, let’s be precise: here’s why strongly tactical combat systems mess up our roleplaying. If you’re anything like me, and if a tactical combat system appeals to you, you’re going to get into the tactics. You’re going to want to think about the optimal choice, and you’re going to want to use your resources effectively, and you’re going to want to do the right things to win the fight.

Thus, a combat becomes an exercise in what you the player think you the character should do at any given point. The question of the character’s desires tends to fall by the wayside, since those desires do not affect the tactical situation in any way.

Making the right tactical decision improves the chances of survival for both your character and the other characters in the game. That makes the other players happy. You get the satisfaction of beating the GM, which is also kind of fun. The frame changes from whatever it was before (telling a story, exploring the world, whatever) to winning the fight.

Yup. Miniatures fuck up roleplaying.

Quote:

Step four: make your character do whatever your character would do. Fuck tactics. If your character wants to blow off the big bad because the guy he loves is at the other side of the room getting eaten by a basilisk, charge across the room and take opportunity attacks and save his lover’s ass. When in doubt, do the less tactically advantageous thing. Get used to screwing up, you big damn hero. Heros screw up all the time!

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The most memorable characters that aren’t memorable for what they did are the ones with really lopsided stats.  But for every single memorable character of such ilk, there are 50 that are remembered for their actions, not their stats.   And is that a great way to be remembered? “Remember that character of Temple’s the wizard who had a higher strength and constitution than the fighter did?  Haha he rolled crazy stats!”  As opposed to “Remember that character of Temple’s, the wizard? And when he kept falling and taking damage as he was running from the Headspiders down that sloped cavern and almost killed himself?  Man that was funny.”

I’m not saying that having an 18 strength or a 8 intelligence is a bad thing, just that it’s not necessarily the greatest way to own a memorable character per se.

For most characters, barring random roll, fixed placement oddballs, you’re going to have your three best scores where they do your class the most good.  That’s a given 99.9% of the time barring a player who just wants to create something lopsided for dramatic or comic reasons like the 8 strength fighter or the 9 wisdom cleric. Heck this whole thing coined the idea of the ‘dump stat’ which used to be Charisma for everyone except Paladins.  In the past editions characters were as a whole pretty average looking at best.

So the question at hand is what if we just did away with hard numeric stats and instead the player described their character’s abilities?

So if instead of – “Hi, I’m Bob the stereotyped big dumb fighter cause intelligence is a dump stat for fighters and this is Steve the highly intelligent but asthmatic wizard who as usual put his good stats in something other than constitution.”

We had something a little more prosaic and less ‘fixed’, “My character, Kel of Clan Finnan, approaches and asks you about joining your group.  He’s a fit but not overly muscled man dressed in well worn leather armour.  At first glance he appears unremarkable but there’s something about him that catches your eye on a second glance, the roguish twinkle in his eyes that might indicate a keen intellect and cutting wit.  You’ve heard of Kel, he’s known to be impetuous and leap in head first when perhaps he should have thought things through beforehand.”

As for the stats we simply give everyone the same +x across the board, or slightly more favorable to me, +x to their MAD abilities and +x-x to their other abilities.  So the big dumb fighter while he’s roleplayed dumb actually has a reasonable intelligence. Because honestly how long would a big dumb fighter really survive adventures?  Barring luck he’d quickly sucumb to the first riddle trap etc.  And the sickly wizard?  Dead the first winter.   And everything between those is generic already.

In other words make the game about the characters not the numbers.

I’m ambivilent on this whole idea personally.  On the one hand I see it has potential to make the people make the characters memorable and unique rather than the numbers.  It helps even out the MAD aka Multiple Attribute Dependency issues of classes like the Paladin (arguably the worst case of MADness). On the other I can hear it mooing and by the gods you’re supposed to have numbers for your stats and all characters will be generic.  But for the majority they’re already generic to the point where it’s unmemorable in terms of stats.

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Because it doesn’t matter now, there’s no chance the people involved are going to read this before it happens and because someone asked, the upcoming “while you’re here” sequence synopsis is going to run like this:

1. Interlude 1 – Party uncovers a need for their talents (which I believe is plausible but won’t go into now, just in case).  The party is comprised of Pre-Gen’s although they did pick their classes/races/powers but I equipped and set them up otherwise.
2. Tactical Encounter 1 – Difficulty Hard – A mix of artillery and skirmishers and a bunch of minions.
3. Skill Challenge 1 – Skill challenge with a varied range of results that all have them getting where they need to be but with possibly depleted resources.
4. Interlude Two – Party finds a random descriptive event designed to illicit character development.
5. Extended Rest possible at this point (due to my house rule).
6. Tactical Encounter 2 – Difficulty Standard – A mix of Soldiers and Minions.
7. Tactical Encounter 3 – Difficulty Standard – Artillery, Brutes and Controller.
8. Extended Rest possible at this point (due to my house rule).
9. Tactical Encounter 4 – Difficulty Hard – Boss, Controller and Minions.  Tough fight but the party could retreat before engaging if they feel they have to after the previous two encounters.
10. Extended Rest possible at this point (due to my house rule and DM fiat exception)
11. Skill Challenge 2 – Same as the previous skill challenge really.  Just adds a bit of randomness to how the party shows up at the next major area.
12. Tactical Encounter 5 – Difficulty Standard – One brute/controller and an ASS load of minions.
13. Tactical Encounter 6 – Difficulty Standard – Artillery and Brutes fill this niche in the defenses.
14. Tactical Encounter 7 – Difficulty Hard – Solo and soldiers are the final combat in this sequence of encounters and events and will culminate in some Phat Lewt as well as a level after defeating all the encounters prior to this.

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No meaning to this post, just thought it interesting.

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Shade Master

And my printer decides to go tits up. And my laser printer doesn’t print colored monster pages very well at all.

So one dissection later and several wooden matches (W.T.F?!) removed later and it’s working again.  Yay!

This is the Shade Master, he’s going to show up with 24 minions of Shadow…

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Shade Master Level 4 Brute Medium Natural Humanoid XP 175
Initiative +3 Senses
HP 66; Bloodied 33
AC 15; Fortitude 17, Reflex 13, Will 12
Speed 6
Slam (Standard; at-will)
+7 vs. AC; 1d10+4 damage.
Smashing Darkness (Standard; at-will)
+7 vs. AC; 2d6+4 damage.
Enveloping Shadows (Standard; encounter)
Close Burst 3; +6 vs. reflex; all enemies in the area take 1d12+4 damage. Sustain minor, the area persists as a zone that causes blindness in all enemies that enter or start their turn in the zone.
Cast Shadows (Minor; at-will)
The Shade Master can teleport one shade within 20 squares to an empty square adjacent to him, or teleport one adjacent shade up to 10 squares.
Consuming Darkness (Minor; at-will)
The Shade Master can consume one tattered shade within 3 squares and gain a +4 power bonus on attack and damage rolls and 4 temporary hit points until the end of its next turn.
Alignment Chaotic Evil Languages
Str 18 (+6) Dex 13 (+3) Wis 10 (+2) Con 14 (+4) Int 9 (+1) Cha 10 (+2)

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Anyway a random off the top of the head list of things that can speed up play without major detriment to game play.  I’m sure there are other things but these are what I came up with.

The biggest thing is to find the worst offender in terms of time and fix that as best as you can, whether its one player who’s always slow, or the DM is always looking up stats or your battles are simply battles of attrition without any question as to the outcome, find the problem and fix it.

On the player side there are options -

• Each player should have power cards or a simple spreadsheet outlining their powers in a concise format.  In other words ANYTHING BUT having to look the powers up each time and then figure out what the attack bonus is and then figure out their damage.   The spreadsheet format is definitely the fastest option.  A player’s powers can be displayed on a single page with their Attack value, what defense the power attacks, the damage they do with their standard weapon, and a short sentence that outlines any special effects of the attack.
• Do the math ahead of time for ALL the player’s powers and basic repeating dice rolls.
• Each player should have a ‘worksheet’ that they can keep track of their surges, hitpoints, second wind usage, action points and death saves.  90% of the information on the character sheet is not needed 95% of the time.
• Each player who’s not ready on their turn reserves their action and the player is deal with while they figure out what they’re going to do or if they’re not ready then they use an At-will attack on their current or closest target if it’s possible to do so.
• Use tokens for things like hit points, surges, action points, etc.  A stack of white poker chips and red pokers chips (or nickels and pennies) for health (although this can get messy with high level characters obviously).  When they’re down to the red they’re bloodied.  When they’re out of yellow chips they have no more surges.  Three black chips (failed death saves) and they’re dead.

On the DM side -

• The DM should have all his material ready and printed out.  He should have cards or sheets that have the monsters he’s going to be using printed out and not be flipping back and forth through the books.
• He should have a cheat sheet showing the player’s base standard ‘all the time’ defenses so he doesn’t have to keep asking, “Okay the orc rolled a 15 Bob against your AC, did that hit?”
• Know your material. Plan ahead what tactics the npc’s are going to employ against the party.  Don’t spend 15 minutes figuring out what your bad guys are going to do.  If you don’t have a plan then just have them attack the nearest thing with their biggest damage.
• Have your mini’s or tokens or whatever you’re using grouped and ready to go.
• Buy a large sheet of 1″ chart board paper at your local office supply store and pre-draw your maps then whip them out as you need them.  They don’t have to be works of art but they’ll avoid that 5 minutes delay (or worse) while you draw the encounter area which can give players time to get distracted which takes time to get them back into the game.
• Look up the rules later, make a ruling now and retract it later if you need to. Keep the game flowing.
• Just say NO to toys.  Phones, laptops, handhelds.  Leave them at the door, incoming phone calls only.  No texting, no surfing, no playing super mario.  I can’t stress that one enough.  It’s just strikes me as disrespectful at worst and a major annoyance and waste of the other players time at best for a player who spends time texting with his friends/girlfriends or playing the latest ‘it’ game on his iphone etc.
• Reward speedy play don’t penalize slow play.  If a player is ready on their turn when their turn comes up give them a +1 to hit or a +1 on damage roll or a free minor action.

General -

• Roll your damage dice with your attack, saves you a few seconds each time that adds up over time.
• The DM should have several different color D20’s and roll them all at the same time, assign each player a color or just always use the same colors in the same order, whatever works for you.  Or go to random.org and generate a 1000 d20 rolls based on solar activity and just mark them off as you use them.
• 4th edition specific Combat speed ups-
• Increase all damage on the first damage roll of an attack by 1/2 per level.  (i.e. an AOE has one attack that does normal damage+1/2 level and the rest are normal).
• Reduce elite and solo hit points by 20% (easier math than 25%) and reduce the xp reward accordingly.
• Don’t use monsters that stun or reduce their stun to a daze.  It’s so NOT fun to have to sit out a turn because you were stunned.  Or stunned multiple times in an encounter.  This promotes players who aren’t interested in what’s going on which can distract other players and cause more delays.  Not to mention the damage or support value of the player who’s sitting this one out.
• If a fight is a forgone conclusion then end it quickly via narration and charge the party 1 healing surge per narrated away monster.  (or one for two or whatever seems appropriate).
• Don’t waste game time on easy fights, just narrate them out and charge the party healing surges as coin of the realm.   In MMOG parlance, don’t waste your time with yard trash.  Unless I’m showing new players the gaming system, all my fights fall on the high end of ’standard’ in terms of XP budget.   You want each fight memorable.  Although some fights can be memorable by their ease, you don’t need to roll it out.
• Make fights interesting.  Get out of the mindset of older editions and games of “I roll d20 and do damage.  Monster rolls d20 and damage”.  Design the encounters with options, make them ‘action movie’ with chandeliers to swing on, barrels to roll, flaming braziers to tip over. And lead by example, have the npc’s do something other than stand there and swing.

Example Pointless Combat  – “Lara comes back and tells you there are two orcs dicing in the corner of the next room and another nodding off in a chair.  *party decides they’re going to attack and explains their battle tactics* The orcs are taken off guard easily as you flood through the doorway and although they fight fiercely for several moments your able to easily take the gamblers down and the sleeping orc never even woke up from the sword thrust through its throat.  Trask as the one at the front of the charge, you need to use a healing surge to recover the damage.  The fight seems to have gone unoticed thanks to the heavy closed doors leading out of the room although a distant rythmic thudding can be felt near the large iron door to the south.”

That fight although appropriate for the setting in that it made ’sense’, took only a minute or so depending on how much the players talked about what their characters would do.   To play it out would have taken several minutes with the same result barring just silly ass dice rolling.

Unless your group enjoys the ‘fight’ keep pointless fights to a minimum.   Your fights should advance your shared storytelling, not just be a way to garner experience and loot.

Miscellaneous -

Speaking of experience, don’t get hung up on it unless your players are pretty much tied to it.  Just decide at what point in your storyline the party should level and level them then.   Checkpoint based experience IMO feels better and works better in terms of “Hey Dennis, I know with that last group we’re well over into 6th level and even though we’re in the middle of the session I want to level up my guy.”   But if instead you reward experience by ‘quest’ and not by ‘grinding’ then it becomes less gamist.  A classic quote from my group from way back in the day, “Shit I’m only 5 exp short, okay I lean out the window and use a throwing dagger to kill someone.   *DING!*”

If you make experience goal based and not mob based then you can end up with a lot more creative ways to accomplish a goal from your players rather than “they’re like experience atm’s, let’s stay here and let the coffins keep spewing more skeletons out at us, we could level up in this room easy.”

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Anyway, along with Action Point tokens I’m going to hand out Recharge tokens.  You start the day after an extended rest with one Recharge Token (much like you start with one Action Point).  For each encounter you get another token (much like for each milestone you get another Action Point).  An encounter power takes 1 recharge token to recharge/untap, a daily power takes 3 tokens to recharge/untap.

This helps reduce the 15 minute work day or provides some incentive to do so, provides a way for the players to use an encounter power twice in one encounter (or more if they save up) and after their second encounter of the day they could use a Daily power twice.   Which is more valuable?  3 encounter powers or 1 daily power?  Depends on the situation I’m hoping.  Could the players just horde them and then nova on the boss?  Sure but at 1 token per encounter that’s a lot of fighting where they’re using up the Currency Of The Realm (aka Healing Surges) and is self limiting in my opinion.

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I have friends coming in from Georgia at the end of June and I’m going to run a first level module for them of my own making.  Since they don’t read this, I don’t think they do anyway I’ll share some of the details.  It’ll involve a race of marsh/swamp dwellers known as Zissors (Hint: It’s the way my children used to pronounce Scissors).  These will be reptillian in nature and right now I’ve got the following creatures penciled out, Spinethrower (artillery), Gatherer (minion), Creepers (minion), Swarmlings (minions), Clutch Guardian (soldier), Slimecrawler (lurker), Clutch Master (elite controller), Clutch Mother (solo role still to be determined).

The area will be in a swamp of course if you haven’t figured that out.  There’ll be two major skill challenges involved, one to find something and the other to find something. (Just in case someone does read this who shouldn’t).   The skill challenges will entail Endurance (or lose healing surges), Nature (avoid dangers of the swamps which can lead to extra encounters, I’m thinking gators or giant snake like creatures), Perception (keep on track or increase the length of the challenge), Athletics (general ability to traverse the swamp’s obstacles).

I have plans for an initial encounter of primarily Gatherer’s with a couple or three standards in it, a secondary encounter with higher XP budget, the skill challenge, another encounter with a wave attack and then a Boss encounter with a solo, guards and minions.

This will lead to a second skill challenge and another set piece encounter that just in case I won’t be divulging much about other than it’ll involve some grotesqueries of the necromatic arts and culminate in a boss encounter.  I plan on making sure the party levels to 2 by the end of the second skill challenge regardless of how much XP they earn.  I hand out XP by encounter and by checkpoint at various times over the course of my DM’ing career.

The party currently will consist of 4 maybe 5 players.  A Razorclaw Shifter Druid, a Halfling Ranger (Bow), a Half-Orc Barbarian, a Gnomish Bard.  The fifth player to be determined but I have a Longtooth Shifter Shaman rolled up for whoever it is.

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Why not let your players try their hand at being business moguls and selling large gelatinous cubes to cities as sewer cleaners or coming up with the next widget you can’t live without in a medieval society?

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Anyway the idea is to add a new condition called Sickened.  This prevents the affected character from using healing surges (Second Wind, ‘Word’ powers, potions etc.), and infers other penalties.

Sickened

• You cannot spend healing surges.
• You grant Combat Advantage to opponents.

Obviously the ability to not be able to spend a healing surge can be brutal and aside from a power that goes like “target is Sickened (save ends)” or “target is Sickened until the end of the [creature]’s next turn” is as bad as it should get and I’d go so far as to say the latter option is probably preferred (after having seen players burn for several rounds because they couldn’t make a save).

An example critter -

Dapak Level 3 Elite Skirmisher Medium Natural Beast XP 300
Initiative +5 Senses Perception +3
HP 90; Bloodied 45
AC 17; Fortitude 15, Reflex 15, Will 15
Saving Throws +2
Speed 6
Action Points 1
Cunning Slash (Standard)
+8 vs. AC; 1d10+3 damage.
Venemous Bite(Standard; recharge )
+8 vs. AC; 2d6+3 damage and the dapak makes a secondary attack as it injects the wound with venom. Secondary Attack: +6 vs. Fortitude; the target is Weakened (save ends) and Sickened until the end of the dapak’s next turn.
Pounce and Bounce (Move; recharge
The dapak can shift up to its current movement and make Cunning Slash attacks against up to three targets.
Bloodfrenzy (Immediate Reaction, when an adjacent enemy is bloodied)
Close burst 1; the dapak makes a Cunning Slash attack against all adjacent enemies.
Alignment Unaligned Languages
Skills Athletics +7, Stealth +9
Str 13 (+2) Dex 16 (+4) Wis 10 (+1) Con 13 (+2) Int 3 (-3) Cha 10 (+1)

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Anyway, this poster offers up the solution, “Just use lower level monsters.”

The downside is this though, the DM has more monsters to run which takes more time, even for a good DM’s.  There are typically more hit points on the field to wear out even though the PC’s are probably hitting more often so that needs to be considered.  But since the players are hitting more often it’s probably more fun for them, their encounters and dailies hit more often with less chance of an “Awww crap” feeling so it might work out just fine.

Anyway, the thread is here and the pertinent (for me) bits are here -

n (many) other threads, a “math problem” (PCs’ attacks and defenses fall behind monsters’ so that players rarely hit while monsters rarely miss) has been discussed at length and there has even been published feats to remedy this.

Without having played at higher levels, it sounds like to me like the easy one-step solution is to just use monsters of slightly lower levels than recommended, say 1/2/3 levels lower from level 5/15/25.

This will
– give monsters lower defenses and fewer hitpoints so they go down faster
– let the DM use more monsters because lower-level ones are cheaper
– solve all math-problems wrt PCs and monsters ability to hit each other

Or did I miss something?

 

Not necessarily.

According to DMG pg. 174, if you’re only adjusting monster levels up or down by 5 or fewer levels you’re only going to end up changing the damage by 2 points at most if you are using Monsters as written from the MM and changing their level using the DMG rules.

Likewise, if you are creating monsters and want to change their damage expressions for level according to the chart in DMG pg. 185, you’ll only be changing the average damage by about 3 points or less so long as you don’t alter their levels by more than 5.

Of course, this may get a little hairy as you add more and more dice since the stats are going to get slightly more variable as you hit paragon tier, but the damage is similarly stable within 3 or 4 levels of each other.

So unless you feel the RAW on damge are already too low, low damage shouldn’t be an issue…

Also consider that you are adding more monsters. Which means that the monster party will A) hit more often overall (since there will be more attack rolls) and B) do more damage.

By way of example:
Let’s assume an Adventuring Party of four 10th level characters.

A normal 10th level encounter would feature four 10th level monsters doing 1d8+5 damage (according to DMG185) about twice a round, assuming they hit about half the time. This is assuming the monster are sticking to their normal at wills and that none of them are brutes (in which case the damage would be greater).

If you make that same encounter from seven 7th level monsters, all getting a +1 or +2 to their attacks and defenses (to make them about even with 10th level baddies) then the party will still be taking 1d8+5 damage, but now they’ll be getting it about 3.5 times per round.
You just increased your damage output by at least 50%.

Let’s say you want to have even more monsters on the field and you intend to make that same 10th level encounter with ten 5th level monsters. Remember, these are STANDARD monsters that are not brutes. Adjust their attacks and defenses to keep them near those of 10th level monsters (but they’d have 5th level damage and hp) and now they’re dealing 1d6+4 damage about 5 times a round.

Four 10th level mobs = ~18 damage/round (average roll for 1d8+5 x(4/2))
Seven 7th level mobs = ~27+ dmg/rnd (ave for 1d8+5 x(7/2))
Ten 5th level mobs = ~35 dmg/rnd (ave for 1d6+4 x(10/2))

And this is only at heroic! The damage dice and the size of the dice keep going up from here on out. There’s no way that adding more monsters to the field will somehow lower the damage rating if you make sure to adjust their attack and defenses appropriately.

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To me, there’s two issues here.  Is the math wrong?  And if it’s wrong how do you fix it?

From those that care, the consensus is that the math is wrong.  And there’s two schools of thoughts on how to fix it, fix the players or fix the monsters.

If I fell into the side of the math is wrong and needs fixing and the feats that are purportedly supposed to fix it were too much of a feat tax, then I’d simply do away with those feats.  Expertise and defenses that is.   Next I’d not touch the players because it’s too much of a pain in the ass trying to have custom characters in the character builder and frankly I like using the character builder.  After putting characters created by hand into it and seeing mistakes everywhere from stats to powers to attacks from player created characters I don’t not want to use it.  So my fix would be a flat -1 to attack and defenses per tier for monsters.

Some people say, oh that’s too much work, you have to do that for every monster for every fight while the opposite, adding a +1 to hit and +1 to non-AC defenses at 5/15/25 only has to be done 3 times.   But FFS if you always debuff the monsters, all monsters, all the time, in the same fashion, -1 tohit, -1 defenses per tier how hard is that?  I can see possibly where it might take a few rounds to get in the habit of doing it but after that it should be automatic.

But that’s how I see it.  I’m still out on whether the problem is there as I’m not out of heroic yet.

In other news, Pandemic is a great game if you’re into board games.  Highly recommended for the more cerebral board game players as you really do have to think ahead a few moves but also be willing to change you tactics completely as randomness can shift the game dramatically.  It’s a coop game so that’s a huge bonus for me personally but the gameplay itself is simplistic yet complex.  In many ways it’s like chess but with killer diseases…

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For various reasons haven’t been able to play any the last three weekends and the forums are pretty dead even with the recent release of the PHBII.

I did find a copy of the World Day event module.  Not a bad little ‘module’, it’s in the same three fights and you’re out encounter setup that’s swiftly becoming the format.  I also really don’t like the flipping back and forth the official format is doing making you jump to find the information you need.  Honestly if the module is linear enough that tactical encounter 2 has to follow social/exploration encounter 1 then why not just put it right after that one?  This module is an extremely good example of having to go back and forth when the entire thing is extremely linear and if the various descriptions were simply in their proper order it would require a lot less page turning.

Okay so maybe I did have a little something to bitch about.

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Follow the link to see the thread in it’s entirety and read the discussion on it.

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Design Goals:

My goals in designing this system were as follows:

1. Create a system which is generic enough that it can be applied to just about any kind of business or market activity that PCs might want to engage in in a game. This means avoiding complicated rules about specific goods and services, and instead creating rules that can be applied to any good or service.

2. Make it so that all the choices in the system are fairly balanced, so for example, businesses mostly focused on sales won’t be systematically more profitable than businesses focused on crafting, or vice versa. While this can obviously be changed based on the needs of a particular scenario, we want to set up a starting “baseline” with no obviously superior choices, so that choices can be based on elements specific to the scenario.

3. The system should be a framework that it is easy to add elements onto, like “purchasable items” such as upgrades, special events like shortages of materials that affect prices, etc.

Overview:

In this system, there are three main categories of activities that players can engage in. They are:

Purchasing: Trying to purchase items, whether raw materials or finished products, and get the best price.

Production: Also known as “crafting” in some circles, this involves converting raw materials into finished products.

Sales: Selling your wares for money!

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I did get a lot of “But you’re making the wizard do more damage than the [fill in the blank].” To which my non-polite reply, which I didn’t give, is “So?”.   On a personal note, I’m not willing to accept RAW as holy writ from on high.  The Rules are more guidelines to me.  Trust me, if you’d played under me for awhile you know just how… non-Monte Haul I am.  This site is called Key Our Cars and that’s based on a direct quote from a player of mine (20+ years he’s been a player of mine).  So if I actually give something to the players then you can believe that I feel it’s needed.  And no it’s not just because the wizard is my wife.

I’ve also done a little more work on the dice tool, image on one side or the other of this sentence.  Gave it 10 slots for powers, rearranged a bit.  I’ve also recorded dice sounds but haven’t included them as of yet other than a quick test to make sure they worked.

Hopefully should have another session this weekend barring unforseen events and perhaps try out having someone play remotely via the web cam / VoiP setup, using the KoC Dice tool of course.

I’ve also had a chance to listen to part 3 of the Penny Arcade pod cast and all I can say is I’d love to have Chris DM for me.  I think he does a wonderful job considering what he has to work with.  Honestly now, “dick tuna with mayo” and “vagina vagina vagina”?  Hmmm of course there’s the attack of the floor anus from my last episode so perhaps we have something approaching the same level of silly.  Although I think, like the last podcast, the players take at least an hour to get over their “OMG we’re playing this geek game and it’s going to be broadcast and everyone will hear us being geeks.”

Part 1 was very much a non-event, part 2 was getting better, approaching entertaining but part 3 where they’re once again starting to ‘get into it’ is significantly better.

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Anyway these seem pretty useful and I’ve gone all this time without knowing about them so I thought I’d bring them up.

The cool thing is you can write on them in permanent ink and erase it with a dry erase marker.  So you could pre-draw them, shove them into your bag and take to the game location without fear of the map getting accidently smudge or erased.

Or in my case having someone draw on your chessex map with dry erase pen by mistake and having a permanent terrain feature…

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I’m ready to show off the first rough draft of it, it’s not a lot of programming work, 3 or 4 hours, most of that learning how Purebasic does things differently than the other languages I know.  I settled on PB because I need to be able to use it in a variety of installs from craptops to a VM running on my desktop at work and Visual Studio wouldn’t be possible in those situations and it’s very light code, the client and server together are 54kb and require no installs on the client side, not support dll’s, no ancillary crap which is always a good thing. PB is a fairly decent RAD system although it’s weak on the application side although pretty nice from the games/graphic side.

Anyway, here’s an image of it in action well testing, both clients and the server are running on one machine but I’ve tested connectivity across the internet as well.  Things I’m going to do as well is add some sound effects, dice rolling etc. so the DM knows when the player rolls the dice so he can look up, maybe a “Waa wah wahhhh” sound on 1’s.   That kind of thing.

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If you’ve had the urge to make your own classes, for instance I’ve jotted some notes down on a mental based class controller and of course have some concerns for play balance.  It’s for a race of people from the glass mountains to the far north.  They don’t get out much but each has a rite of passage where they have to go out in the world and experience life to see if they have a taste for the outside world or the seclusion of their mountain fastness.  Surprisingly few remain in the outside and as a result the Shar aren’t seen all that often.  Human race they fit the normal variations physically although they have a tendency toward red and blond hair rather than browns and blacks.   But their abilities to channel their mental energies and affect the physical world are definitely unique to the world of Karn.

Original thread is here.

Here’s my idea for a create a power system. Basically you take one of the power skeletons and add/subtract attributes whose points values sum up to a certain amount depending or the type of power.

There are 4 power skeletons. 1 for each attack type. Each attack gains a power source keyword (Martial, Divine,…) and an accesory keyword (Weapon, Implement).

Melee
Standard Action, Melee Weapon
Target: One Creature
Attack: Primary Attribute Modifier (PAM) vs AC
Hit: 1W + PAM damage

Ranged
Standard Action, Ranged Weapon
Target: One Creature
Attack: Primary Attribute Modifier (PAM) vs AC
Hit: 1W + PAM damage

Close
Standard Action, Close Burst 1
Target: Each creature in burst
Attack: Primary Attribute Modifier (PAM) vs AC
Hit: 1W + PAM damage

Area
Standard Action, Area burst 1 within 10 squares
Target: Each creature is burst
Attack: Primary Attribute Modifier (PAM) vs Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + PAM damage

2) Each power type has a different power modifier sum. Power modifiers may be taken more than once and the effects are cummulative.
At-will powers: 1
Encounter powers: 2 in heroic, 5 in paragon, 7 in epic
Daily power: 4 in heroic, 7 in paragon, 9 in epic

Sample Power Modifers

-2: No PAM damage on Hit
-1: Add damage type (fire, necrotic, poison)
-1: Remove Weapon or Implement Keyword
0: Attack targets Fortitude or Will instead of Reflex
0: Ranged 5 instead of Ranged weapon
0: Hit deal 1d6 damage instead of 1W
0: Add damage type (cold, electric, thunder)
1: Blast or Wall instead of burst
1: Hit also pushes the target 1 square
1: Hit also knocks the target prone
1: Hit deals an additional 1W
1: Hit or Miss also causes minor ailment (dazed, slowed, grants combat advantage) until the end of your next turn
1: Hit or Miss causes onging damage 5
1: Hit or Miss grants target -2 penalty to one defense or attack rolls until end of your next turn
1: Hit or Miss grants target -SAM penalty to one defense or attack rolls until end of your next turn
1: Increase damage dice one size
1: Increase burst or area size by 2
1: Increase Range by 5 squares
1: Ailment lasts until save ends instead or end of turn
1: Hit deals Secondary Attribute damage
1: Add damage type (radiant, acid, psychic)
1: Attack is Realible
1: +2 to the attack roll
1: Attack deal half damage on Miss
2: Attack targets Reflex instead of AC
2: Hit or Miss also causes major ailment (stunned, immobilized, blinded) until the end of your next turn
2: Additional 1W attack after primary attack

Of course it is up to the DM the allow the attack for balance or sense purposes (Martial attacks dealing fire damage etc).

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Didn’t get much done over the weekend, Ryan’s 7th birthday party was Saturday which is pretty much a whole day affair with the cleaning before and after.

I did make a new ‘race’ of creatures to use as a general area environmental hazard.  The Katahn – (n: ka-tawn adj: ka-tawn-ee) who are nomadic tribals who tend toward evil at least against outsiders.  They’re a small active race, in battle they use lightning strike tactics, blow through an enemy camp each katahni doing as much damage in as short a time frame as they can and then they disapear into the night.  They respect a warrior and treat all others with disdain.  Each group is ruled by a warrior who rules by rite of combat and has a wiseman to advise him on the ways of life outside of battle but the ruler’s decisions are final and absolute.  At times the groups will band up together to go after the spoils of a larger target than they might overcome on their own but such groupings always fall apart once the battle is over and if the battle is going badly then perhaps before it’s over.

The katahn’s signature weapon, the jakar,  is a curved thick bladed sword sharpened on both sides, typically with a hooked notched on the top 2 or 3 inches from the point.  The typical warrior will either dual wield two jakar, or one and a wide bladed punch dagger in his weaker hand.  From a distance the katahn ranged warriors use talatls, short javelins that they fit into a 18 to 24″ throwing stick which lets them hurl them with greater speed and force than arm alone.  All katahn are also familiar with their shorter range throwing weapons, a heavy curved wooden shaft set with a piece of granite or metal used primarily to disable and wound rather than kill.  A common tactic for the katahn are to wound in their initial attacks and then harry their enemy and pick off the stragglers and the wounded as they can.

I’m not sure yet where I’m going to introduce these guys but they should form quite a signature enemy for the players.

In other news it’s been slow.  No new books out that I know of, the forums are pretty boring right now, it’s not uncommon for the first page of the various forums to have posts from a week ago.

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The duergar are if I ever run the module series that has them or just as generic bad guys too of course.

I really need to rebox them all, they’re kind of mixed up with character mini’s sharing the same box, in their own compartments though as monster mini’s.  My thought was get the tribes together as best as I can, bugbear, orc, goblin, kolbold, duergar, skeletons, etc and then have a box of misc and a box of female PC and box of male PC, that kind of organization.

• 1 #15 Spellscale Sorcerer
• 10 #41 Witchknife
• 8 #17 Tavern Brawler
• 1 #33 Dread Warrior
• 1 WotDQ #01 Aasimar Fighter
• 1 WotDQ #41 Witchknife
• 5 #38 Duergar Slaver
• 1 Unhallowed #15 Cleric of Sune
• 5 #04 Deep Legionnaire
• 1 Harbinger #16 Axe Sister
• 1 Harbinger #30 Wild Elf Barbarian
• 1 Harbinger #65 Half-Orc Assassin
• 1 Giants of Legend #09 Aramil,
• 1 Giants of Legend #02 Dwarf Sergeant
• 1 Giants of Legend #05 Sword of Glory
• 1 Dread #59 Spectral Panther
• 1 Dragoneye #19 Elf Spearguard
• 1 Dragoneye #17 Drunken Master
• 1 Dragoneye #27 Druid of Obad-Hai
• 1 #27 Blood of Vol
• 1 Desert of Desolation #12 Merchant Guard
• 1 Deathknell #09 Soldier of Thrane
• 1 Deathknell #10 Valorous Prince
• 1 Deathknell #23 Renegade Warlock
• 1 Deathknell #24 Undying Soldier
• 1 Deathknell #36 Grim Necromancer
• 1 Blood War #06 Half-Orc Spy
• 1 Blood War #16 Free League Range
• 1 Archfiends #24 Sage
• 1 Angelfire #12 Village Priest
• 1 #27 Orc Zombie
• 1 Against the Giants #03 Deathpriest of Orcus
• 1 Against the Giants #42 Chain Golem
• 1 Aberation #04 Cleric of St. Cuthbert
• 1 Aberation #11 Aasimar Favored Soul
• 1 Aberation #20 Sharn Cutthroat
• 1 Aberation #30 Emerald Claw Soldier
• 2 Aberation #58 Taer

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So with that said I thought I’d go through a little more on some things at the local level.  There’s only so much I can post here to avoid spoilers for my players who read this from time to time.

The Fearless Foursome lives in Stark, a town that’s dying in a world that’s dying. Or at least running down.  If you’ve read the Gunslinger series by Stephen King it’s the same feel.  Things are just getting… worn out.

The FF’s are all low level (duh) members of their guilds or of society in general.  The guilds and other organizations have more members than they can deal with as it’s a way to eat and have some sense of belonging which is important to some.   They are still paying off their infractions and have been grouped together because they worked so well in the sewer mission together.

The area around Stark is also a dark place.  Orc tribes roam the flats while goblins infest the the hills.  Bandits camp the trails, preying on anyone who doesn’t travel in force.  Of late it’s gotten darker still.  The orcs have gained new powers, powers over death itself in some cases and rather than simply disappearing, some of the overrun communities have shown up as undead, driven by a mindless need for violence and attacking their neighbors.  The goblins have gained new allies as well, their shamans and hexer’s now appearing with pet deamons in tow when they attack.

What is the source of these new powers?  Are the stories of a new leader with purple eyes that’s forging the orcs into a war band larger than any ever seen true?

Have the goblins truly gained access to the subterranean Temple of Kys and unleashed the creatures that were locked within.   Will the humanoids finally grow strong enough to overtake the small specks of civilization that dot the lands?  We’ll just have to see.

The old harbor, especially Overlook Keep is going to be a place to venture for the Four.  Fallen into ruin now, it sits atop the large hill south of the harbor and those that venture near it have reportedly disappeared without a trace or have reported seeing dark shapes flitting through the ruins and hearing screams of pain and anguish.  Probably just typical peasant talk one might suppose.

What of the tomb that was opened deep under the city?  Captain Tarkus of the Watch who led the exploration has vanished it is said after killing his wife and his adjutant who the story says were discovered by the Captain in bed together. Other stories wonder at that as his adjutant was known to prefer members of the same sex in his dalliances.

People still continue to disappear from the city.  Are the goblins they uncovered in the sewers still sneaking in and kidnapping people?  Or is something even more sinister going on?

No traders have appeared on the great trade road leading north west to Price in over a year and only one small part of a large trade contingent has ever returned from that road.  And those had no recollection of their journey or their past and had a pathological fear of the dark.  None of the six lasted long, each killing themselves within weeks of being found stumbling mindlessly down the road to Stark.   What dark forces are doing away with those that dare to travel the land between the two cities?  What broke the minds of those that went and returned?

This is going to be the groundwork of the small circle of the world that the players will find themselves in.   Unlike some I’ll level the areas I want them to venture into as they do so if they choose perhaps to go to Overlook Keep they’ll find appropriate level opponents and then decide to investigate the stories of the sources of the tribes different levels.

The only place they can’t go is the great trade route right now.  That’s scheduled for higher level encounters and greater dangers.

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Maybe it’s just me but this class more than any yet seems like power creep and the double stacked temporary hit points of the battlerager were a bit of a Whoa…

Unfortunately I didn’t get a lot of time to work on the little encounter I’m doing for the purposes of posting, perhaps tomorrow.  My company is doing a domain merge with another company and migrating thousands of users, desktops, servers spread across the world into a new domain…without any user impact… is a little complex.

I had a chance to look at the ‘final’ version of the Character Builder.  They fixed quite a few of the complaints I had in this version, the power cards now autosize the text so everything’s not cut off.  I just wish they had an option to change the size of the power cards but perhaps we’ll have the option to come up with our own templates there.  I also hate the white text in the big blocks of black on the character sheet.  I think it makes the sheet hard to read and ‘busy’ in appearance.

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I really need to check my list before I make an order to avoid duping up.  And I really should keep this list up to date.  Hence the new post that you’re reading about here.   I may be good on goblins, orcs and kobolds at this point and the bugbears have a pretty good contingent going….

I’m at the point where I need to re-organize them again.  I just stuffed them into compartments in those multi-compartment craft supply boxes so finding appropriate ones is a pain in the ass since one box might have one type of goblin and another have some of the rest etc.

Note: Red’s are new additions or additional body counts for already owned creatures.

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10 Goblin Archer
04 Goblin Adept
06 Goblin Picador
06 Goblin Runner
06 Lolthbound Goblin

17 Orc Raider
02 Orc Brute
01 Orc Mauler
01 Howling Orc

10 Kobold Archer
05 Kobold Trapmaster
10 Kobold Monk
04 Flamescorched Kobold

15 Bugbear Gang Leader
05 Bugbear Headreaver
03 Bugbear Strangler

03 Hobgoblin Marshall
05 Hobgoblin Impalers
06 Hobgoblin Impaler
05 Hobgoblin Guard
01 Hobgoblin Archer
05 Hobgoblin Warcaster

07 Halfling Slingers
01 Halfing Sneak

10 Gnoll Marauders

06 Troglodyte Brute
02 Troglodyte Curse Chanter
06 Troglodyte Bonecrusher
01 Troglodyte Barbarian

08 Orc Zombie
02 Orc Skeleton
06 Horde Zombie
04 Skeletal Dwarf
14 Boneshard Skeletons
05 Strahd Zombies
02 Skeletal Reaper
11 Gravetouched Ghouls
06 Chillborn
06 Spellstitched Hobgoblin
09 Deathlock Wight
01 Corruption Corpse
02 Terror Wight

08 Human Bandits
08 Duergar Slaver
02 Scythejaw Trap
06 Snaketongue Cultist
04 Fiendish Dire Weasels
03 Direguard
01 Large Fire Elemental
02 Cockatrice
04 Gnaw Deamon
04 Runespiral Demon
02 Rat Swarm
01 Kruthik Hive Lord
07 Kruthik Adult
03 Ochre Jelly
02 Rat Swarm
08 Ravenous Dire Rat
04 Diseased Dire Rat
02 Cave Bear
05 Iron Defender
04 Giant Centipede
04 Hunting Hyena
06 Harmonium Guards
10 Soldier of Byztopia
15 Doomguard
05 Caravan Guards
04 Deathjump Spiders
01 Half Ogre Barbarian
06 Animated Statues
01 Large Brass Dragon
01 Small Black Dragon
01 Small Copper Dragon
01 Small Copper Dragon
01 Pseudodragon
01 Hill Giant
02 Rot Scarab Swarm
01 Demonweb Swarm
01 War Ape
01 Quaggoth Slave
01 Dracotaur Rager
01 Carnage Demon
01 Guard of Mithral Hall
01 Grey Hawk City Militia Sergeant
01 Lion of Talysin
01 Digester
01 Xorn
01 Greenspawn Sneak
01 Fiendish Snake
01 Large Chaos Beast
02 Hammerer
01 Giant Centipede
01 Arcanix Guard
01 Wood Elf
01 Arcadian Avenger
01 Soulrider Devil
02 Cockatrice

01 Sacred Watcher
01 Warforged Barbarian
01 Human Cleric of Bahamut
01 Dwarf Maulfighter
01 Cliffwalk Archer
01 Eternal Blade
01 Halfing Enchanter
01 Tiefling Cleric
01 Tiefling Rogue
01 Captain of the Watch
01 Eladrin Pyromancer
01 Golden Wyvern Initiate
01 Dwarf Raider
01 Wild Elf Raider
01 Hero of Valhalla
01 Skullclan Hunter
01 Voice of Battle
01 cleric of Pelor
01 Elf Archer
01 Dwarf Shieldmaiden
01 Everfrost Ranger
01 Defiant Rake
01 Tiefling Warlock
02 Prisoner
01 Half-elf Hexblade
01 Dwarf Mercenary
01 Dragonmark Heir of Deneith
01 Dwarf Phalanx Solder
01 Whirling Steel Monk
01 Undying Soldier
01 Barbarian Mercenary
01 Warmage
01 Xeph Soulknife
01 Half-Orc Fighter
01 Royal Guard
01 Elf Stalker
01 Wizard Tactician
01 Vampire Hunter
01 Dwarf Battlerager
01 Shieldwall Soldier
01 Warpriest of Moradin
01 Cleric of Syreth
01 Earth Shugenja
01 Lantern bearer
01 Spirit Folk Fighter
01 Mercenary Sergeant
01 Half-orc Executioner
01 Devotee of the Silver Flame
01 Knight of the Chalice
01 Phalanx Soldier
01 Wild Elf Warsinger
01 High Inquisitor
01 Blood of Vol Divinity Seeker

01 Swashbuckler
01 Duergar Slaver
01 Inspired Shock Trooper
01 Torturer
01 Dark Talon Champion
01 Tiefling Warlock
01 Cleric of Syreth
01 Wild Mage
01 Kalashtar Bodyguard
01 Xeph Warrior
01 Cleric of Pelor
01 Human Fighter
01 Cleric of Laogzed
01 Cloudreaver
01 Spirit Folk Fighter
01 Cleric of Dol Arrah
01 Half-orc Paladin
01 Standardbearer
01 Anvil of Thunder
01 Regdar Adventurer
01 Scarlet Brotherhood Monk
01 Axe Soldier
01 Brass Samuari
01 Sharn Redcloak

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Why is there a perception of a need to penalize the players for taking damage? It’s kind of what they do, you know?  It’s their reason for being, taking damage, handing out damage, and in general doing what the common man cannot or will not.

Do things like “Each time you get bloodied you lose a healing surge and take -2 to your attack and damage rolls” or “If you fail a death saving throw all your healing surges only heal for half their normal value and you lose all action points.” make it more fun or enjoyable at all?  Isn’t the fact that you took enough damage to get bloodied that you’re going to need to use two healing surges to recover, isn’t that right there ‘penalty’ enough for the player?  What does stripping out the ability to heal do other than make it so that the players go back to a one fight a day syndrome?

Aren’t we, as DM’s, here to make the game fun for the players and ourselves?  And not just for ourselves as we watch the inevitable death spiral commence.  The players are penalized for taking damage and as a result their ability to recover and deal damage is reduced which means they take more damage… that cycle repeating until they’re dead, that’s the death spiral.  And where is the fun in that.

I believe that as their DM we can give them those tough fights they want and we want to see them beat without stacking penalties on them.  If for no other reason than it adds bookkeeping without any real gain that I can see.  I’d much rather ‘penalize’ the players with additional monsters, traps, tricky and clever situations, than tack on a -2 to their ability to have fun (cause missing sure as hell isn’t fun).

Or maybe that’s just me.

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The characters were a Ranger, Wizard, Cleric, Paladin. Heavy on the healing obviously which was a good thing as the Paladin received a butt load of damage. Most of the encounters were easy enough for them, not trivial but no player deaths either. A couple of characters were down to negatives over the course of the evening but it was toward the end of the encounter rather than the start.

The first “warm up OMFG it’s a MMOG and we’re fighting gd rats again!?” fight against the rats was easy but it was really designed to be such and just get players used to their powers or more accurately, how to look at their powers, the order of combat, etc.   And for that it worked, easy fight, no pressure, able to look at everything.

The sewer scavenger’s was tougher as their Splashing Dive kept one of the characters blind off an on through most of the fight.  But they got their first little bit of loot afterwards which is always fun.

Ranger

The goblin encounter in particular was very easy, it didn’t really occur to me when I was designing it that all the goblins except the warriors were melee only and on that narrow catwalk that made them all semi-useless each round. From somewhere I had the impression the Blackblades had a ranged attack and during the design stage I was picturing them using the pillars to gain stealth and thus combat advantage and thus their extra damage.  But it didn’t happen.

The warriors Great Position ability and Mobile Range attack’s did the most damage although a blackblade got a bluff feint in on the paladin to get combat advantage and got some really decent damage on him but in general the ranger twin-striked them while the cleric’s Guardian of Faith prevented any of the melee’s from coming against the ranger from that direction.  Oh they could have come at the ranger but they’d of had to end their turn next to the GoF and would have died as a result.  Suicidal they’re not.  The paladin held the other path and along with copious healing kept everyone safe from there while they whittled the opposition down.  One of the blackblades and a cutter made a break for it once it got really bad and the Ranger was able to Twin Strike the blackblade in the back before it could get away.  The cutter on the other hand vanished.  The party swiftly looted the goblins and picked up on the physical clues that the goblins are probably the source of the missing people above. Not sure if they picked up on some of the more subtle hints but that’ll come in time I’m sure.  They moved on quickly afterwards after having elected to not take up the chase of the cutter who was surely going to get more goblins.  Surely.  Also because they killed everyone or let them go they didn’t pick up on the Lost Maid side quest and as a result her body will be forever lost in the bowels and bellies of the rats and sewer worms.

Wizard

It was bad enough that once they got to the tomb at the end of the passage and saw the little cut scene they decided to go tell the authorities about their findings. “Uh uh, that ain’t an encounter for level 1’s!”

So the four of them retreated and informed the authorities, their guild masters or the Watch as appropriate about their findings earning quite a bit of exp ending up just shy of level 2.

Cleric

Next time I’m going to go with my original campaign starter idea which involves the outdoors, a farm and a chaotic mass battle with integral skill challenges during the combat.   This little session was just an off the cuff kind of thing.

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D

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Anyway, here you go, this is certainly a different take on it with the it’s an amorphous blob of energy or lifeforce or whatever rather than an actual black cat or snowy owl.

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Ritual of Binding
Level: 1
Category: Binding
Time: 1 hour
Duration: Permanent
Component Cost: 100gp
Market Price: 150gp
Key Skill: Arcana (no check)
This ritual calls a familiar, which is a magical being of arcane
origin with no true physical form, to the target of the ritual
and binds it to them. It usually takes the form of an animal of
some type that reflects the caster’s personality. However, it
can assume any shape of a natural animal of tiny size, at-will.
Regardless of form there is always some signifying mark that
makes it stand-out from other animals of its type and is unique
to it. The master also gains this mark on some part of their
body.
From that moment on, the familiar and caster share a hit point
total. Therefore, whatever damage one takes, they both take.
When together (sharing the same square), they are considered one
entity for the purpose of taking damage, and so do not suffer
double damage from an attack that would hit both of them at the
same time.
Whenever the familiar is targeted, use the caster’s defences. If
the familiar is required to attack, it does so at the expense of
the caster’s attack. The connection between the two is so
fundamental that the strain of combat forces one to be active
and the other to be passive.
The familiar has a +3 to hit with natural weapons in addition to
the normal level bonus and does 1d4 damage plus 1 damage every
two levels.
The familiar only acts as a separate entity when the master
wills it. There is no distance penalty for separation, however
if the familiar is destroyed, then the master is reduced to 0
health and must make death saves as normal or be stabilised.
At this point, the master loses all benefits associated with the
familiar, including any feats gained. They lose all healing
surges and regain them at the rate of one per day. After this,
they may gain another familiar through performing this ritual
again, at which time all benefits, including feats previously
gained, return.
The familiar can fly (hover) with a speed of 6 as long as it
assumes a form that can fly. It has the same type of vision as
the caster and uses the caster’s skills as its own, therefore if
the caster can Stealth, so can the familiar.
The familiar and caster share an empathic link. Only images,
sounds and feelings can be conveyed. There is no range limit on
this ability. The familiar can speak all tongues the master
knows.
It has the same Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom &
Charisma as the master, however it has a Strength of 3. It
shares many personality traits with its master, especially
dominant traits, however it is its own entity for the purposes
of personality. Despite this, the master can command it to do
what he wishes.
Multi-class Familiar
If an owner of a familiar wishes, they can enhance the
connection between themselves and their familiar by taking
feats.
This works almost exactly like the multi-classing rules. The
only difference is that the powers are chosen for you and you
have the option to upgrade them as you go up in level.
Whenever a level is gained where you have the choice to replace
a power, you can instead upgrade one of your familiar feats.
Each feat lists the benefit of upgrading and these benefits
stack with each other.
Familiar Attunement Heroic Feat
[Multiclass Familiar]
Prerequisite: Familiar, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma 13.
Benefit: You gain a +1 to Perception and Stealth.
In addition to this, you can use your familiar to do the
following:
Sensory Attunement Familiar At-will Power 1
You attune your senses to that of the familiar’s, enabling you
to see, hear, smell, taste and touch everything the familiar
sees, hears, smells, tastes and touches.
At-will • Arcane
Standard Action Ranged 20
Effect: until the end of your next turn, you can command the
familiar to move to any square within range. Forgoing your own
sensory input (making you unable to see, hear, smell, taste or
touch through your own senses), you attune yourself to your
familiar. You do not need line of sight for this ability to
work.
Sustain Minor: you can sustain this power for up to one hour per
level with a minor action every round.
Upgrade: Add +1 to Perception and Stealth. Increase the range of
Sensory Attunement by 5.
Enhance Familiar I Heroic Feat
[Multiclass Familiar]
Prerequisite: Familiar Attunement, 4th-level.
Benefit: You gain a +3 hit points (does not stack with
Toughness).
In addition to this, replace your 3rd-level encounter power with
the following ability:
Sacrifice Familiar Familiar Encounter Attack 1
By merging its soul with your own the familiar can sacrifice its
physical form, protecting you from harm.
Encounter • Arcane
Immediate Interrupt Melee or Ranged special
Trigger: You are attacked by a creature.
Target: the attacking creature.
Attack: Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma vs. Reflex.
Hit: 1d8+Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma force damage and you
get to use your Second Wind ability after the target’s attack
has been resolved.
Special: the familiar cannot be used for the remainder of the
combat and reforms after a short rest. The familiar must be
within a range determined by the Sensory Attunement power for
this power to function.
Upgrade: Add +2 hit points (does not stack with Toughness). Add
+1 to hit with this power. Gain an extra 1d6 to the amount
healed by using Second Wind as a result of this power.
Enhance Familiar II Heroic Feat
[Multiclass Familiar]
Prerequisite: Familiar Attunement, 8th-level.
Benefit: Add +1 to damage when using this ability.
In addition to this, replace your 6th-level utility power with
the following ability:
Spell Conduit Familiar Utility Power 1
Any spell that you can cast can be cast as if from the
familiar’s location instead of your own.
Daily • Arcane
Minor Action Ranged special
Effect: cast a spell as if the point of origin is your familiar.
You must still have line of sight to the target unless also
using Sensory Attunement, in which case line of sight is
determined from the familiar’s position.
Special: the range at which the familiar can be away from the
master for this ability to still work is equal to the range of
Sensory Attunement.
Upgrade: Add +1 to damage when using this power and becomes an
encounter power. Each successive replacement ability used to
upgrade this power adds +1 to damage with this power and another
use per encounter.
Enhance Familiar III Heroic Feat
[Multiclass Familiar]
Prerequisite: Familiar Attunement, 10th-level.
Benefit: Add +1 to hit when using this power.
In addition to this, replace your 9th-level attack power with
the following ability:
Simulacrum Familiar Daily Attack 1
You divide your essence into two halves and imbue your familiar
with the other half, empowering it for a short period and making
it look exactly like you.
Daily • Arcane
Move Action Ranged special
Target: special
Attack: special
Hit: special
Effect: choose a square within range. The familiar moves to that
square and becomes an exact duplicate of you. You can then use
any power or ability you wish and both forms will produce the
same effect, targeted at the same area, using separate attack
and damage rolls (based on your own attack and damage
modifiers). You can flank an opponent using this power. Once the
power has been used, you can choose which square to ‘reform’ in,
either your own or the familiar’s.
Special: the range at which the familiar can be away from the
master for this ability to still work is equal to the range of
Sensory Attunement.
Upgrade: For each successive replacement ability used to upgrade
this feat, add +1 to hit and damage when using this power

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Anyway if you’d like to offer your players the ability to have a dwarvish equivalent to Drizzle then here you go.

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Duergar
Natural humanoid (devil)

Average Height: 4’3” – 4’ 9”
Average Weight: 170-230 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence
Size: Medium
Speed 5
Vision: Darkvision

Languages Common, Deep Speech, Dwarven
Skill Bonuses: Dungeoneering +2, Arcana +2

Impregnable Mind: +1 racial bonus to Will defense, +2 Will defense vs. powers with the illusion key word
Tartarean Blood: Resist 5 fire, 5 poison

Duergar Weapon Proficiency: You gain proficiency with the warhammer or war pick (choose one when your character is created).
Encumbered Speed: You move at your normal speed even when it would normally be reduced by armor or a heavy load. Other effects that limit speed (such as difficult terrain or magical effects) affect you normally.
Beard Quill: Once per encounter, you can pluck a poisoned quill from beneath your beard (hair if female), and throw it as a minor action – you gain the Beard Quill racial encounter power.

Play a Duergar if you want…
to be resistant to fire, illusions and poison
to possess dark ties to fell heritage
to be a member of a race that favors the artificer, swordmage, and warlock classes.

The duergar, also called gray dwarves, were once a settlement of shield dwarves in the dwarven kingdom of Shanatar. The shield dwarves that eventually became the duergar lived in certain strongholds that fell under attack of mind flayers, or illithids, and were captured. During their captivity, which lasted for generations, the illithids performed many cruel and unusual experiments on the dwarves. Eventually, the dwarves rose up against their captors and gained their freedom from the mind flayers. Believing Moradin abandoned them in their long captivity, duergar turned to evil dwarven deities (like Ladaguer and Deep Duerra) and infernal powers, strengthening their stock by breeding with devils and seeking power in dark rituals. When the evil dwarven deities perished in war with the Moradinsaman, the duergar took Asmodeus as their favored deity. Now the duergar inhabit volcanic areas of the Underdark and have been left as cruel and evil as their former captors and quite withdrawn from their experiences.

Physical Qualities
Duergar are similar in appearance to their distant cousins, the dwarves. Short and strongly built, duergar stand about 4 ½ feet tall and weigh roughly 200 pounds. All duergar have fiery amber eyes, and their skin is usually gray to sooty black. Their hair is generally white to gray, and males are bald (although they wear facial hair). Their long association with devils and infernal magic has left them strongly resistant to illusions, fire and poison. Nearly all duergar have long, stiff spines concealed within their beards (for males) or hair (for females) that carry a burning venom. They can pluck and hurl these quills like daggers. In public, duergar wear drab clothing designed to help them blend into their environment. In private, they may add subdued jewelry and well-wrought metal bracers, armbands or torcs. They share the love of their surface cousins for mining and metalcraft, and excel at artifice.

Playing a Duergar
Grim and ruthless, duergar grow up like their infernal relations valuing strength and endurance, and despising weak sentiment or behavior. Courageous, duergar are fierce enemies with little sense of fair play. Even more than their surface cousins, duergar are insular, looking inward and little valuing those outside of their clans. They never forget their enemies, and will wait patiently for a chance to take their vengeance ten-fold for any harm done to them. They always pay back a debt; if you are lucky enough to be on the good side of a debt with a duergar, he will grudgingly make it good to the letter of the agreement. But if you have taken advantage of him or dishonored him in his own mind, he will add you to the tally of those who deserve ten-fold vengeance. Duergar are patient and will spend years if need be preparing a revenge that leaves their enemies humiliated, and in ashes or eternal servitude. It is not uncommon for a duergar’s vengeance to fall onto those one or two generations down from the person or creature who offended them, especially when dealing with shorter lived races.

In the chance that an adventurer wanders across a duergar on the surface, that adventurer is likely to notice facial and arm tattoos that mark the gray dwarf as a traitor to duergar society.

Racial Feats

Improved Tartarean Blood
Prerequisite: Duergar
Benefit: Fire and Poison resistance increase to 10.

Aberrant Slayer
Prerequisite: Duergar
Benefit: +1 bonus to attack rolls against aberrant creatures, and +2 saving throws versus power effects of aberrant creatures.

Avernal Bloodline
Prerequisite: Duergar, Constitution 13+
Benefit: Once per day, you can use either the invisibility or expansion duergar racial powers.

Racial Powers:

Beard Quill Duergar Racial Power
Encounter
Minor Action Ranged 3
Attack: Str +2 vs. AC
Hit: d6 + Con, Ongoing 2 poison and -2 penalty to attack rolls (save ends)

Expand Duergar Racial Power
Daily Polymorph
Free Action
Trigger: When first bloodied
Effect: You become Large, occupying 4 squares instead of 1. Any creatures in the squares that you come to occupy are pushed 1 square. You also gain reach 2 and a +2 bonus to your melee damage rolls. You remain Large until the end of the encounter.

Invisibility Duergar Racial Power
Daily Illusion
Minor Action
Effect: You turn invisible until end of your next turn. You become visible if you take a standard action

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Combine these guys with perhaps a white dragon youngster from the Draconomicon and you’ve got yourself a real world matching adventure or three.  Assuming you live where it’s cold right now.

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In context: These creatures feature in two encounters with relatively open areas that have a smattering of both Icy Terrain and Choke Frost (from the DMG). The party consists of four characters. The area is the icy home of the Ice Queen (also known as the Ice Witch). She hasn’t been interested in visitors since her heart was broken sixty years ago… all of her fey servants have left here, so her halls are patrolled by elementals that were attracted to the sudden and unnatural cold she has created for the area.

The first group is 4 minions, 1 ice skulk, and 1 ice brute. The dominant terrain is a 10-foot wide frozen river running across the valley (which is about 50 feet across). The ice brute drops from the ceiling across the river if the PCs fail to negotiate with the Minions, and the Ice Skulk will rise up well behind the PCs after a round or two of combat.

The second is a group of 4 minions, 1 ice brute and a level 3 magic crossbow trap. The room is about 30×35 feet, with patches of ice and glazed-over carvings in the walls. The minions appear after the trap is sprung or the PCs disable the trap. The ice brute will wander in from a side cave after 3 rounds have passed (fighting or otherwise).

Lastly, we have the Ice Queen herself. Hopefully this combat never happens (there are better ways for the PCs to resolve the conflict). She maintains an air of cold aloofness, but can be provokes into a bitter fury. In case this happens, it takes place ina wedge-shaped throne room, about 70 feet across and 150 feet wide (she likes her space). Her throne is on the far wall, surrounded by ice and choke frost. The area is littered with ruined stone and icework, from the heyday of her court.

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We’re introduced to the Gray, Brown and Purple dragons, (stone, dirt and psychic respectively) as well as a loving documentary of all the old favorites.

You’ll get details on their history, anatomy, what they like and don’t like, why they do the crazy things they do.

There are two outlines for using dragons as a major plot line for a campaign and a good handful of adventure ideas using dragons at various levels.

Several lairs are described complete with maps and rules for generating dragon hordes can be found to fill them with phat lewt for delvers to come across.

Oddly enough we finally get breakdown of what ’stuff’ costs with this book which is an odd place to finally get it.  Honestly I’d of looked for it on DDI or in a Dragon issue but hey here it just adds value to an already pretty worth it book.

As a DM I’d rank this one as a higher purchase priority than the Adventurer’s Vault, (as a player it would easily be the opposite of course).

Anyway if you like dragons this is a definitely must have if you’re a DM.  It’s available at your local brick and mortar’s I’m sure and you can always get it at amazon.

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You can find the maps in this thread here…

The post image for this one is interesting and if you like then hit the image credits link for a larger version.  Looks like it could easily be used for something.

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Found some interesting Zombies to record for future use in response to a request on Enworld.   Perhaps too many powers really for level 5’s especially at-will’s but some good concepts none-the-less.

All credit, as far as I know, goes to Mesh Hong.

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Zombie Ripper Level 6 Brute
Medium Natural Animate (undead) XP 250

Initiative +5 Senses Perception +4
HP 86; Bloodied 43; see Zombie Weakness
AC 18; Fortitude 19, Reflex 17, Will 16
Immune charm, disease, poison;
Resist 10 necrotic; Vulnerable 5 radiant
Speed 5, 7 (charge)

Zombie Swipe (Standard; at-will)
Attack +9 vs. AC; 1d10+4 damage

Charging Slam (Standard; at-will) ♦ charge attack
Attack +10 vs. AC; 2d6+4 damage; on hit target is pushed 2 squares and knocked prone

Ripping Claws (Standard; recharge 456)
Attack +7 vs. Reflex; 2d8+4 damage; on hit target takes 2 ongoing bleeding damage (save ends)

Out For Blood
Zombie Ripper gains +2 to hit a bloodied target

Zombie Weakness
Any critical hit reduces the Zombie to 0 HPs, destroying it

Alignment Unaligned Languages
Str 19 (+7) Dex 14 (+5) Wis 12 (+4)
Con 16 (+6) Int 8 (+2) Cha 8 (+2)

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Bloated Zombie Level 5 Controller
Medium Natural Animate (undead) XP 200

Initiative +5 Senses Perception +3
Powerful Stench (poison) aura 3; All creatures entering or starting their turn inside aura take 2 poison damage
HP 66; Bloodied 33; see Zombie Weakness
AC 19; Fortitude 18, Reflex 17, Will 16
Immune charm, disease, poison;
Resist 10 necrotic; Vulnerable 5 radiant
Speed 6

Zombie Slam (Standard; at-will)
Attack +10 vs. AC; 1d6+3 damage

Dreadful Moan (Standard; encounter) ♦ thunder, fear
Burst 5; attack +8 vs. Will; 1d6+4 thunder damage; on hit target is immobilised (save ends); all zombies in burst may immediately shift 1 square, and gain +1 to attack until the start of Bloated Zombies next turn

Acid Belch (Standard; recharge 56) ♦ acid
Close blast 3; attack +8 vs. Reflex; 1d10+4 acid damage; on hit target takes 2 ongoing acid damage (save ends)

Zombie Weakness
Any critical hit reduces the Zombie to 0 HPs, destroying it

Alignment Unaligned Languages
Str 16 (+5) Dex 16 (+5) Wis 12 (+3)
Con 18 (+6) Int 12 (+3) Cha 8 (+1)

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Zombie Needle Horror Level 6 Skirmisher
Medium Natural Animate (undead) XP 250

Initiative +7 Senses Perception +9
HP 72; Bloodied 36; see Zombie Weakness
AC 20; Fortitude 18, Reflex 19, Will 16
Immune charm, disease, poison;
Resist 10 necrotic; Vulnerable 5 radiant
Speed 6

Needle Stab (Standard; at-will)
Attack +11 vs. AC; 1d6+3 damage

Mobile Needle Stab (Standard; at-will)
Needle Horror may move up to 6 squares and make a Needle Stab attack at any point, this movement does not provoke opportunity attacks from the target

Needle Toss (Standard; at-will)
Range 10; Attack +9 vs. Reflex; 1d6+4 damage; on hit target is slowed (save ends)

Frenzied Stabbing (Standard; encounter)
Burst 1; enemies only; attack +8 vs. Reflex; 2d6+3 damage

Zombie Weakness
Any critical hit reduces the Zombie to 0 HPs, destroying it

Sharing the Needle ♦ poison
If Needle Horror has combat advantage it deals an additional 1d6 poison damage

Alignment Unaligned Languages
Skills stealth +12, perception +9
Str 16 (+6) Dex 19 (+7) Wis 12 (+4)
Con 16 (+6) Int 10 (+3) Cha 8 (+2)
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Crawling Hand Level 4 Minion
Small Natural Animate (undead) XP 43

Initiative +5 Senses Perception +1
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion.
AC 18; Fortitude 17, Reflex 17, Will 15
Immune charm, disease, poison;
Resist 10 necrotic; Vulnerable 5 radiant
Speed 4, climb 4

Hand Grab (Standard; at-will)
Attack +9 vs. AC; 5 damage; on hit target is grabbed; DC 20 athletics or acrobatics to escape

Choke Hold (Standard; at-will)
If Hand has a target grabbed at the start of it’s turn instead of making an attack it automatically deals 5 damage and continues the grab

Unnatural Cunning (Immediate Reaction)
If missed by a melee attack Hand may shift up to 2 squares as an immediate reaction

Alignment Unaligned Languages
Skills athletics +11, stealth +10
Str 18 (+6) Dex 16 (+5) Wis 8 (+1)
Con 12 (+3) Int 8 (+1) Cha 3 (-2)

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Basically Mike, can I call you Mike?, tries to have three ‘threads’ of a skill challenge that do all end up in a pass or fail but the how they get there varies significantly. Which sounds like a very good thing indeed.

The original thread and the important post that ’spoke to me’.

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A good skill challenge, like a good fight, should present a number of potential outcomes and pitfalls that emerge because of the players’ choices.

It’s all too easy to set up skill challenges like overly complicated skill checks, with the players on one side, a pile of dice rolls in the middle, and the outcome everyone expects on the other.

You can get away with that in a fight, because the players get to have fun using their powers and beating down monsters. In a skill challenge, though, it’s dull. Everyone is just rolling dice, waiting to either succeed or fail.

What I’d do:

1. The sooner you start the skill challenge, the more complications and branching paths you can create.
2. Create scenes and choices that flow from the characters’ decisions.
3. Be nimble enough to handle a few different outcomes.

Using your example: the PCs want to look at the baron’s tapestry.

Scene 1: How are the PCs going to get into the throne room?
Streetwise -> Success gives the PCs a map of the sewers and a secret passage into the throne room.
Diplomacy -> The PCs can arrange for an audience through a merchant prince, but now they owe him a favor (to be cashed in at the DM’s whim).
Bluff -> The PCs can pose as visiting dignitaries. In fact, the baron is expected a famous horticulturalist to visit his gardens, and the gnome rogue in the party happens to look just like him…

You can then build three new paths for each choice, each keying off a skill. The key is that the PCs don’t necessarily know where a skill take them, and multiple success give them more options (the PCs might find the sewer map and meet the merchant who can do them a favor. Which path do they follow?)

You can also have paths diverge and converge as needed. For instance, the captain of the watch might be open to a bribe, and that could come up if the PCs sneak into the palace and are caught or if they pose as the horticulturalist.

My rules of thumb are:
* Three scenes, each with three paths. You have your set up (how can we get access to the tapestry?), the meat of the challenge (execute the plan to get to the tapestry), and then any repercussions (dodging any negative repercussions of getting to the tapestry).

* One check per NPC or obstacle, unless you are 100% sure that more than one check is still interesting.

* Failure should end the challenge and put a new obstacle before the PCs. Plus, failure can mean more than stopping short of your goal. Regardless of what happens, the PCs might get access to the tapestry, but they could end up accused of breaking into the palace, thrown into jail, in debt to one or more folks, and so on.

The really fun thing for a DM when it comes to skill challenges is that you have a ton of options for making failure an interesting part of the game. Failing at a fight is pretty much always the same – the PCs are dead, captured, or running for their lives. Failing in a skill challenge can set up even more interesting complications, barriers, and challenges. __________________
Mike Mearls – Lead Designer, RPG R&D
Wizards of the Coast – http://www.wizards.com
Retro Stupid and proud of it.

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These might be useful to you and here’s a snippet, visit the original post for the entire article.

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In setting out to design new types of Encounter groups for 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, I started in the obvious place by looking at what was provided in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.  Right away I noticed the two groups that stood out were the Wolf Pack (4-7 skirmishers) and the Dragon’s Den (one solo monster). Both of these solely feature one type of monster, which highlights the abilities and features of the monster in a unique way.  Wolf Pack is a great encounter of all skirmishers: a group of speedy and maneuverable but lightly armored and weak troops. The Dragon’s Den features solo monsters but adds in the spice of an additional elite monster in particularly hard fights and is presented to us the suggested way of complementing solo monsters with other monsters in correct balance.

With that in mind, and with a request from Asmor, I began putting together some new Encounter group templates that can be used to expedite your game planning and hopefully present your players with some new experiences and challenges. I’ve also listed some suggestions and brainstorming for how these groups could be implemented, and I would love to hear any you’ve come up with as well!

I looked first to my personal favorite monster role to feature in its own Encounter Group: the Lurker!  I feel like they get very little love in the DMG Encounter groups as they only show up in the harder Double Line groups, so I very badly wanted to do them the justice they deserve.

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Lots of interesting ideas sparkling here from these descriptions of his ‘wyrlds’ waters.  Pirates, ghost ships, ancient kraken, maelstroms, triangles where ships disapear to never be heard from again, the Marie Celeste type things?  Lots of good stuff.

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This is a list and quick description of the bodies of water in my setting – The Wyrld. I know it’s, lazy but it stuck. Feed back?

The Endless Ocean
“I once sailed into the Endless Ocean. Me and ma’ mates aboard the Fallwyvern. Foolish thing to do I tell ya’. For days we was stalked by a beast until one day a great slimy tentacles came from the depths and crushed our ship in two. I drifted fer twelve days until I finally reached the shores of Norsund. There is nothin’ in that ocean but death and fear.”
-Old Grey Jenkins, former captain of the Fallwyvern
Far to the north, past the lands of Norsund, lies the Endless Ocean. Grey and stormy waters form the proverbial ‘end of the world’. Norsunder legend speaks of an ancient beast from ages past that blights the waters of the Endless Ocean, truely making it a place of death and nothingness.

The Sea of Ghosts
“They came from the sea I tell ya’!. Soggy-looking ghosts, all covered in sea-kelp, cursed creatures took my brother Pavil, he didn’t stand no chance.”
-Bim Reedheart of the Fisherman Kingdoms
Between the foggy isle of Norsund and the coasts of the Fisherman Kingdoms lies the forlorn Sea of Ghosts. A haunted and mist-shrouded sea, it is a dangerous place to both the living and the dead. In ages past, the sea-dead and the living lived in relative harmony, but as the years have piled upon each other, the sea-dead have become reclusive, and at times hostile, raiding fishing villages and draggin hapless souls into the sea.

The Teyrander Sea
“Blue upon blue and naught by sea, the cold Teyrander’s home for me!’
-Drinking cheer
A great expanse of deep, blue waters, the Teyrander is the greatest body of water in the known Wyrld. So great it is, that it is possible to sail for weeks without seeing land nor other ships. Besides the Drowned Kingdoms that rest in its heart, the Teyrander is a desolate and empty place.

The Smoldering Straights
A place of craggy stone isles, sulfuric waters, and acrid winds, the Smoldering Straights is the gateway to the Empire of Cinders that rests far to the east. Plauged by the vicious lorch-beasts and patrols from Iera, the Iron City, the Smoldering Straights is an uninviting and dangerous place.

The Shattered Sea
Deep in the heart of the tumultuous Shattered Sea lays the great Maelstrom, a hole in the Wyrld that is slowly consuming all. While the sea is slowly spinning to its doom, the water is only strong enough to pull a ship near the Maelstrom.

The Nevermar Ocean
The Nevermar is the heart of the waters of the Wyrld. It is the most widely travelled and used of all seas and oceans. Ships criss-cross the waves between Token, Harx, the Atharian Empire, Rhyll, Ib, Gammon, and many smaller coastal cities and towns. However, with all the trade and wealth sailing the waters of the Nevermar, dangers are abound. The pirates of Ib, slavers of Harx and the Atharian Empire, cultists of Gael the Sea-*****, and countless others plague the warm waters of the Nevermar.

The Belt of Oxor
The Belt of Oxor is a chain of countless islands that stretches between the shores of Token and the Lantern Kingdoms and the swampy coast between Belka and the Surelle. Within the Belt lies the city of Ib, a strange and dangerous place of lawlessness and decadence. There are no known maps that have been able to successfully navigate the isles of Oxor, the only way to traverse the Belt is to find a trustworthy guide or count on your luck and find your own way through.

The Amar Ocean
The Amar Ocean, while not as important as the Nevermar, is still essential to trade to the western edge of the Wryld. The waters of the Amar are shallow and warm, and hide many hidden dangers. Legends of ghost ships and great serpents abound. The Amar is also home to the Drifters, descendants of a long dead kingdom who live aboard great painted arks that ply the waves.

The Sigil Seas
The North and South Sigil Seas are desolate expanses of grey, murky waters. Sea-trolls plague the waters of the North Sea and dangerous and secretive race of fish-men, the Nurn, call the South Sigil Sea home.

The Golden Sea
Warm sparkling waters mark the Golden Sea. Located between the Great Southern Ocean and the Narrow Sea, which leads to the rest of the Wyrld, the Golden Sea is a peaceful and calm place, vigilantly guarded by the Reed Navy of Piratua. The Sea is also home to the rare tur clam, whose pearls are nearly priceless.

The Great Southern Ocean
A place of great mystery and even greater beasts, the Great Southern Ocean has been seen only by a handful of hardy sailors. Legends speak of sea-turtles the size of kingdoms and giant eels that stretch beyond the sight of the eyes. Another legend speaks of an ancient and arcane kingdom built entirely on an island of jade far to the south.

The Red-Stained Sea
The Red-Stained Sea marks the resting place of the slain wurm Illrithial, whose black skeleton still fills the entire sea. The water to this day is stained crimsom from the blood of the great beast who was killed eons ago.

The Feral Sea
The Feral Sea is a wild and lawless place. The galleys of Galenhart and the occasional patrol from Rigus are the only trace of civilization upon the sea. The crude barques of the Wild Kingdoms and the ruthless sailors of Gammon make the sea a dangerous place to cross.

The Bitter Sea
Located dead in the Argunum Wastes, the Bitter Sea is full of filthy water sludged with the dust and salt of the Wastes. Even though in its raw state the water of the Bitter Sea is toxic, it is the only source of it so deep into the Wastes.

The River of Hands
Built ages ago by the fallen empire that rests upon its banks, the River of Hands is a man-made canal between the North Sigil Sea and the Armar Ocean. The River is still flanked by ruined cities, ripe for treasure hunting or prowling bandits. The founders of the city of Token are said to be the refugees from this lost empire of trade and commerce, and often hire sailors, prospectors, and adventurers to explore the myriad of crumbling cities and ports.

Thiago’s Arm
Thiago’s Arm is a small sea that rests between the remnants of the Athar Empire and Barbarael. There is not much to note about it.

The Narrow Sea
Linking the Great South Sea to the Wyrld, the Narrow Sea is nothing more than a wide straight between the Nevermar and the Golden Sea. The sea is flanked on both sides by thick jungle, and there is little civilization along its shores.

The Hand of Varlax
Said to be the earth-covered remains of the ancient giant Varlax, the Hand is a set of long, rugged isles that jut between the Endless Ocean and the Teyrander Sea. A brutal clan of exiled Norsunders have called the isles within the Hand home for several generations and kill any intruders.

The Shivering Sea
The Shivering Sea is a deathly cold sea strewn with small floatsom of ice. A side from the frigid water, the Shivering Sea is guarded by strange sea-creatures that protect the Kharzan Empire along its northernmost shore.

The Imp Sea
A deceptively calm expanse of water, the Imp Sea is plagued by a multitude of strange imps and mephits who, while more misceavious than evil, delight in beguiling sailors and directing them off course. There also exists a rumor about a magical kingdom of said imps that lays deep beneath the sea within a great glass sphere.

The Sea of Cogs
Located between the Amar and Nevermar Oceans, the Sea of Cogs is littered with enormous, metal cogs and gears, some large enough that their teeth rise above the waves. There exists many rumors and hear-says about the origins and purposes of these cogs, but none have been proven thus far. The cogs that do rise above the sea often serve as make shift bases for the corsairs and pirates that prey on Token and other cities on nearby shores.

Straight of Agromis
The Straight of Agromis rests between the Shattered Sea to its north and the Feral Sea to its south. There is not much to note about the Straights aside from the Monastary of Exquisite Mourning, a strange, floating citadel that embraces sorrow and sadness.

Straight of Rhyll
The Straight of Rhyll, which lays west of the Straight of Agromis, links the Shattered Sea and the Nevermar Ocean. The city of Rhyll rests upon an island within the Straights. Like its city, the Straights are constantly plagued with rain and poor weather.

The Sea of Faces
A narrow and treacherous body of water, the Sea of Faces separates the warring cities of Gammon and Rigus. The sea is named so because of town-sized faces that are carved into both sides of its cliffed shores all along the entirety of its waters.

The Mirror Sea
A calm and smooth bay, the Mirror Sea has not seen a crested wave in centuries. On its eastern shores, the fledgling Kingdom of Ardune tries to carve out a living in the wild lands of the east. Despite the soothing appearence of the sea, rumors exist of a malevolent crab-like creature that can split a ship in two with its massive claws.

The Verdant Sea
A strange sea of kelp and algae, the Verdent Sea almost appears as a grassy plain from a distant. This sea has been explored little as most ships who venture into its tangled waves never return.

Cities and places are being completed as I feel like not being lazy.

 

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No?  What about the dream where you’re in sun god robes and thousands of naked women are throwing little pickles at you?

Ah well, if you do have a hankerin’ for some piratical action then swing on by this thread.

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Snippet:

It tooks us a few months to get it done, but we finally have a beta version out.

4th Edition Swashbuckling! Pirates, cannons and adventures! Featuring new powers, alternative rules, over 40 new feats, two new paragon paths, many new monsters and NPCs and tons of new items.
Here you can find anything from the stats of a Frigate to a rogue power with the name “Let Me Show You How”.
Designed as a lightweight addition to any DnD game that needs a bit more swashing and buckling, as well as a reinterpretation of the old 7thSea world to the new mechanics: use as much of this netbook as you want.

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In it you’ll find Druids, Monks and Barbarian, Bards under different names as well as Half-Orcs and Gnomes and there’s always Halflings aka Hobbits if you want the hairy bare footed ones who favor the six meals a day regimen.

Over all the book is written in a craftsman like fashion,  it did have a spell checker run against it although proofreading was less than 100% but nothing that makes you just cringe and wince.

The monk in this case is the Martial Artist and comes in two flavors, a bruce lee kick your ass kind of striker and Jackie Chan screw with you kind of blend of striker and controller.  The paragon paths include a stick fighter type of path and the way of the Ninja – Shadow Warrior of Death path.

The druid in this case is not a ‘druid’ but a Nature Priest.  The author(s) have insight into what WotC is doing with their classes and went down the path of the spell casting druid rather than the shape changing druid that Wizards is going to be doing. So this is a lot more old school 2nd Edition flavor for this druid.  You’ll be calling down lightning and summoning animals and affecting the weather and growing plants and that kind of thing.  Your paths include one that’s related to storms and another that’s more of the in tune with nature feel to it.

The barbarian although here it’s the Savage Warrior is about what you’d expect.  The typical Raging Bull style things as well as a class barbiarn feel, light armoured kicker of asses with powers that grant resists and temporary hit points and stuff that deals with being bloodied or attacking bloodied foes.  It looks like a cross between a Defender and a Striker.   For paths you get a cornicopia of them with no less than 4 that tend to focus your feel between Defender and Striker.

The bard aka troubador is, and I’ll probably use this a lot, more old school where you’re closely in tune with magic and music.  The troubador is very much a support class lending their fellows healing and inspiration in battle.  I could see using a troubador in place of a bard and being able to get by well enough if no one wanted to play the cleric.

You’ll also get a 5th class, kind of a mini class, that’s aimed squarely at illusionist lovers.  Much like the second edition illusionist it comes off as not a ‘true’ class but rather a way to play a wizard but you don’t really want to play a wizard.  It’s about what you can’t see and what you make other people think they see.  The powers lists aren’t as filled out as the other classes, for instance you only get two options for level 1 encounter powers and no dailies so it’s not a fully fleshed out class IMO but offered for flavor.  I think if you allowed your player the ability to pick from the offered selections and then fill in from the wizards powers on the missing selections you’d have a distinctly flavored class.

Your also going to get some other paragon paths that can be used for the core classes as well as the classes in this book.  These range from the Acrobat to Spellcasting to Cavalier.

In many many ways this book is intended to bring some of the old school flavor back into 4th edition and by old school I mean primarily Second Edition with some nods to 1st.

The classes are usable I believe in their current incarnation although check the publishers site for errata as usual these days.

You’ll get a handful of new feats and rituals to go with the new classes and races as well as a crafting system which is fairly abstract but useful.  It has the advantage of a more professional presentation and thought process than many of the community offered solutions but in the end isn’t significantly better than the better ones IMO.

For the “hit points are too abstract” crowd there’s a wound system that can be used in several levels of deadliness that should appeal.

There is no index other than a powers index which only lists the books powers alphabetically which is useful if you happen to know the exact name of the power you want to look up I suppose.  But at 110 pages and a reasonable table of contents how hard could it be to look something up in this type of book?  it’s not a rules book after all.

The artwork is defnitely nothing over the top.  It’s gray scale or line art for the most part and servicable and falls somewhere between ‘fanzine’ and ‘wizards’ level of art.  I’m reluctant to call it bad but can’t call it great so I’ll stick with “it’s okay but if it wasn’t there at all you probably wouldn’t miss it.”

Is the book a good value?  Well yeah, for $12 for the pdf or $19.99 for the hardback you’re getting a compiled set of classes that without personal playtesting look reasonably balanced although as usual there are some powers that are “uh that’s never going to be used” and some that are “why wouldn’t you take this?”

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Editor Notes:  Accidentally Published a week late.

My time lately has been tied up hard with Fallout 3.  Easily the best RPG I’ve played since Baldurs Gate. I had a random thought today.  Why are the quests in Fallout 3 so much more interesting and immersive than the quests in a MMOG? I mean I give a shit about finding a home for this boy who’s dads family was killed by giant ants, flame effin’ spewing giant ants by the way.  Even though he’s nothing but a quest designer’s idle thoughts and a bunch of pixels and canned dialogue.

Oh and Left 4 Dead demo is coming out Thursday.  Unless you’ve been under a rock or really pay not attention to computer games this may be a big deal to you.

I got a chance to play Touch of Evil over the weekend. Faster paced than I was thinking and with a Villian that’s played by the random placement of the Mystery deck it allows for a player count as low as 1 really although more are very much a good thing.

I bother posting this also idle nonsense simply because there’s very little new under the sun to report otherwise.  The forums are very slow, I’m guessing the initial rush is done, the bloom is off the rose etc. and people have either moved on or are feeling comfortable with the system and not finding any need to post questions or comments or thoughts or whatever or they’re just rehashing the same old things.  “Monsters have too many hit points, fights take too long, players get tired of using the same 2 or 3 attacks over and over, players don’t do enough damage, skill challenges are too easy, too stupid, too hard.”

Been there and done that.

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In case you didn’t know in Versus mode you go through modified versions of the regular maps, they’ve been fixed so that all the normally ‘missing’ bits are put in because the infected end up in areas the survivors never see.  So in order to make the games run as fast as possible each map is optimized by removing surfaces that in Survivor mode that they can’t possibly see.

Dropping down as a big boomer on top of close packed group of survivors and having one of them shoot you instead of ‘bat’ you away so you soak them all in zombie bile is fun.  Grabbing the last person as a Smoker (50′ long tongue) and yanking him (or her) up to dangle choking?  Also fun.  Pouncing on someone who’s strayed away from the herd as a hunter and slashing them?  Fun too.  Of course some of the really fun moments are standing as a boomer (very wide model) in front of the witch knowing the survivors bullets cut through you like butter so that they hit the witch which is usually guarenteed death for at least one survivor.  Yep, also fun.

Anyway if you enjoy First Person Shooters in the slightest, Left 4 Dead is definitely a game you might want to take a look at.  And I hear it’s on sale at Circuit City this week for $39.99.  That’s 20% off retail pricing.

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Frankly I like the concept enough I plan on using it the next time we roll characters up.  I’ll probably tweak it to some extent but I’m liking what I see here.

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Character Creation (4th edition)

The 4ed ruleset matches ADMC vision better than 3ed did, the only mandatory change is to make all player characters human. For this reason races are replaced with aptitudes. All other rules are used (at this moment) as written.

Aptitudes

Sets of human innate characteristics that correspond in game terms to fantasy races. The characters all look human and can be part of any of the myriad human cultures, only their spiritual or physical qualities set them apart. No more monocultural “races” that act like humans in funny costumes!

Brave

Courageous and determined character. Throws himself with abandon even to impossible seeming challenges, and will not willingly back off from the chosen path. The bravery could stem from irrational berserk fury, blind faith to higher powers, pure stubbornness, or tragic fatalism.

Disciplined

Character with better than average training, both because of innate wits and learning ability and tight self-discipline. Wants to continuously better his skills and abilities — goal is to become a master in his chosen speciality. Success is based more on spiritual than physical qualities.

Quick

Fast, alert, and agile character whose sharp senses help to focus on the task at hand regardless of distractions. Has better than average control of his movements, so is a natural dancer or acrobat.

Sinister

Aggressive and ruthless character, who is at risk to become vengeful and cruel. Does not hold society’s norms — customs, morality, or religion — in a high regard, which can lead to rebellion against (imagined) oppression, or a status of a criminal and outcast. Success is based on a no-holds-barred attitude towards own goals. Sometimes may have supernatural heritage.

Social

Open, talkative, and likeable character. Naturally curious, so gathers information and skills from many sources and seldom focuses on a single tight speciality. Communicates well and can quickly adapt to changing circumstances, but is also good at convincing others to adopt his view on things.

Tough

Solid and tenacious character, who can take more physical punishment than most. Willingly exerts himself in hard labor or training. Rugged and hardy, but can be brawny or wiry, short or tall.

All aptitudes

• Ability Scores: +2 to one ability score of your choice
• Size: Medium
• Vision: Normal

1. Mobile Retribution: shift 1 square before making basic attack triggered by Furious Retribution
2. Precision Weapon Training: proficiency with all spears, +2 feat bonus to damage when using a spear or light blade
3. Heavy Weapon Training: proficiency and +2 feat bonus to damage with axes, hammers, and maces

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While I don’t particularily like the official character sheet, too much thin white text buried in blocks of black which prints out hard to read, I think this is pretty damn cool the way you can shift things around and essentially build your own characters sheet using their sections.

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It includes battle maps of all the important things to scale so that’s always a plus IMO. As usual though with first level adventures you’re going to be fighting goblins or their alternate kobolds although in this case it’s goblins.  The settings while not necessarily unique to me personally is fairly different in that it’s set in a charcoal valley where they make charcoal which if you didn’t know isn’t just dug up from the ground and put into Kingsford bags.

The author is from Sweden so english is not his primary language and this does show in some places but does not detract from the module itself.

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I could do a rehash, the Rules you didn’t realize is still going strong with almost 400 posts, an EXCELLENT place for DM and Player alike to make a pit stop in on their way to gaming nirvana.  Or at least official correctness.

YYYASCS (Yet yet yet another skill challenge sysetm) is up for grabs, this one with lots of examples which is always good. It looks workable at first read through.

Personally I just think the skill system as the base idea is broken and attempts to fix it are bandaids at best.  The idea that everyone gets equally better at every single skill as they level is just a non-workable solution but obviously we have to have something and this is semi-equitable although the discrepencies is fairly big and is better than nothing. At least the official system has the advantage of simplicity really.

A new take on an old spell.  For some people the Magic Missile’s ability to hit multiple targets and do it automatically is always going to be a thorn in their side.

On this post there’s some talk of a replacement and here are a couple of the ‘winning entries’.  YMMV of course and I’d seriously recommend testing things.

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Anyway here’s the intro and here’s a link to the full posting as well as the followup discussions.

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Disclaimer: This thread isn’t an attack on 4e. However I am preparing to run it and I wanted to make some tweaks to make the game run as best it can for me and my particular group. I figured that I’d post a thread about it so that I can get any additional feedback that folks care to give. And if somebody likes some of the ideas presented and wants to adopt them for their game then that’s great too.

So yeah, I’m gearing up to run my first 4e campaign since the game came out. I’m really excited about the setting I’ve come up with (maybe I should start another ENW thread about that…) and I think that 4e will be a good fit for our group’s playstyle at this point in our gaming careers. However it has a few rough spots that I wanted to polish up to make that fit as perfect as possible for me and my group. So here are the places where I think it needs a bit of work and what I’m doing to fix them:

Skills – I like the new skill system in general. I like that the list is shorter and has fewer skills covering broader areas. What I didn’t like so much was that some skills that add a bit of flavor to the game were cut out. I’m speaking of Craft, Perform and Profession. This was an easy fix and it goes like this: At the start of the campaign, I ask each player two questions about their character. “What did you do to earn a living before becoming an adventurer?” and “What does your character do for enjoyment when not adventuring?” The answers to those questions become skills at which the PC is trained. We figure out an applicable ability modifier and we now have a skill bonus to that skill. Voila.

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Oh and Left 4 Dead demo is coming out Thursday.  Unless you’ve been under a rock or really pay not attention to computer games this may be a big deal to you.

I got a chance to play Touch of Evil over the weekend. Faster paced than I was thinking and with a Villian that’s played by the random placement of the Mystery deck it allows for a player count as low as 1 really although more are very much a good thing.

I bother posting this also idle nonsense simply because there’s very little new under the sun to report otherwise.  The forums are very slow, I’m guessing the initial rush is done, the bloom is off the rose etc. and people have either moved on or are feeling comfortable with the system and not finding any need to post questions or comments or thoughts or whatever or they’re just rehashing the same old things.  “Monsters have too many hit points, fights take too long, players get tired of using the same 2 or 3 attacks over and over, players don’t do enough damage, skill challenges are too easy, too stupid, too hard.”

Been there and done that.

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Stat Bobble-Heads
Strength – Megaton – Lucas Simms House
Perception – Republic of Dave – Museum of Dave
Endurance – Deathclaw Sanctuary – Deathclaw Sanctuary Entrance
Charisma – Vault 108 – Cloning Lab
Intelligence – Rivet city – Science Lab
Agility – Greener Pastures Disposal – Office
Luck – Arlington Cemetery North – Arlington House

Skill Bobble-Heads
Barter – Evergreen Mills – Market Bazaar
Big Guns – Fort Constantine – CO Quarters
Energy Weapons – Ravenhold
Explosives – WKML Broadcast Station – Sealed Cistern
Lockpick – Bethesda – Bethesda Offices East
Medicine – Vault 101 – Dad’s Desk
Melee Weapons – Dunwich Building – Virulent Underchambers
Repair – Aerefu – Evan Kings House
Science – Vault 106 – Living Quarters
Small Guns – National Guard Depot – National Guard Armory
Sneak – Yao Guai Tunnels – Yao Guai Den
Speech – Paradise Falls – Euology’s pad
Unarmed – Rockopolis – West of Casey Smith’s Garage

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I’ve had that happen, malicious mischief destroyed a site I had and cost me years of posts due to lack of verified offsite backups.  So word to the wise, get your backups off the server you have fronting the web and onto permanent media and test them on a regular basis to insure you can restore them.  Stupid thing is, professionally that’s what I do.  I just never had reason to think that the backup files themselves weren’t fine but you live and you learn.

So there’s your IT tip for the day.

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While you do have to sign up to download it, you don’t actually need to verify your email to get it so feel free to use bite@me.com or privacy@isgood.com or asdfwoaiiwejo@asldfkjaowiwjef.com if that floats your boat better.   Or you could give them your real email address.  I’m sure they only want it to add to their collection and would never sell it to a spammer or even semi-legit advertiser…

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Snippet from the class outline:

Common peasants speak of them in hushed and fearful tones – necromancers are said to be the most terrifying of all magi. They traffic in death, have no fear of the undead and laugh in the face of the
Gods’ pronouncements against meddling in the affairs of the dead. Yet when the local vampire has decided to make the princess into his bride or a child’s ghost will not leave his parents in peace and move on, they all secretly seek out the necromancer.
Yours is the power over life and death itself – your studies have gone were few others would follow.
Unlike the cleric, who can create the energy of life and death from his or her God, you must draw it
forth from others. You are skilled at manipulating the very fabric of what keeps people alive, and can
even compel them to service from beyond the grave.
Necromancers walk a fine line between an ally and a liability – their powers draw upon pain and
suffering, often at their allies’ expense. Yet they are more than easily capable of restoring those same
allies to life if they should fall or healing wounds that may take days to heal. It would be foolish to trust
a necromancer, but so long as your goals and his remain the same, you will have a powerful ally.

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Everything from dice with skulls instead of 1’s and acrylic stands so your characters can fly, although probably not needed so much in 4th Edition, to maps you could use etc.

Worth a look if nothing else.

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Being more ‘generalized’ it does put more burden on the players and DM to support one another.  i.e. the players by not being munchkiny with crazy impossibilities and the DM with allowing a certain level of impossible for cinematic’s sake.

Anyway, here’s the two forms, click the More link to see the one with checks of the system that 77m has come up with…

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STUNT
When a player tries to perform some crazy maneuver to increase their odds or gain some small advantage in combat, you can resolve the attempt as a stunt. The player must be able to clearly explain what they are doing, and the DM has to agree that it could potentially help.

STUNT: Part of another action

* Part of an Action: You must be doing some other thing (attacking, moving, using a skill or power, or some other valid action) in order to stunt. Even if your stunt fails, you must continue to carry out the full action that you intended.
* Describe the Stunt: Say what your character is doing above and beyond the expectations for the action you are taking. It helps to take into account the current situation and circumstances. Be creative!
* Once Per Encounter: You can’t repeat the same stunt twice in the same encounter, but you can try a different stunt. Be creative!
* Once Per Round: You can’t stunt twice in the same round.
* DM Decides the Type of Check: You must make either a skill check (against an opponent’s defense, against the hard DC for the encounter’s level, or opposed by an opponent’s skill check) or an ability check (against the moderate DC for the encounter’s level, or opposed by an opponent’s ability check). The DM decides what sort of check you are making and what the DC (or opposed check) is based on the nature of your stunt.
* DM Decides the Consequences: If you succeed on your check, you get a +2 bonus to one of the following: attack rolls, skill and ability checks, defenses, damage, or speed. But if you fail, you take a -2 penalty to that same trait. For damage, the bonus or penalty is doubled at 11th level (to +4/-4) and tripled at 21st level (to +6/-6).
* Stunt Check: Resolve your check at the beginning of your action.
* Success: You gain the benefit described above for the duration of the action.
* Failure: You suffer the penalty described above for the duration of the action.
* Extreme Stunts: If you take a -5 penalty on your stunt check, the bonus you gain for success increases to +5, but the penalty for failure also increases to -5.
* Multiple Foes: If your stunt affects multiple enemies (you are trying to move past several of them, or gain some advantage on an area attack), make a single stunt check and compare it to the defense or opposed check of each foe separately.
* Speeding Up Stunt Checks: If stunt checks are slowing down game play, have all the opponents Take 10 on all of their skill and ability checks.
* Be Creative!: The DM can use the guidelines above to allow other sorts of bonuses and penalties. For example, the stunt bonus may apply to one of your allies instead of yourself, or it may apply to something like a saving throw, or the penalty may be applied to a different trait than what the bonus would apply to. The DM can also give a bonus to the stunt check for stunts that are particularly awesome. The goal of the stunt rules is to tangibly reward player creativity without requiring it or allowing it to overshadow other elements of the game (such as powers, feats, and magic items).

Examples:

Flick of the Wrist: “I swiftly draw a concealed weapon and attack with it, catching my foe off-guard!”
– Part of a melee or thrown weapon attack; Thievery vs Perception; +2 to attack.

Body Slam: “I plow into my foe, driving him forcefully into the rock wall!”
– Part of a charge or a melee attack against a foe adjacent to a wall; Strength vs Strength; +2 to damage.

Tumble: “I cartwheel past the enemies, avoiding their attacks!”
– Part of movement through threatened squares; Acrobatics vs Reflex of each threatening foe; +2 to defenses.

Dwarf Ramp: “I run up the dwarf’s shield and leap off his head to get extra distance!”
– Part of a running jump; Acrobatics +2* vs Hard DC; +2 squares of distance when jumping. (*Due to awesomeness.)

Cantrip-Up: “I distract my foe with a ghost sound — the roars and shouts of a second party coming up the corridor behind him — and then magic missile him in the back of the head!”
– Part of a magic missile attack; Arcana vs Insight; +2 attack.

Called Shot: “I take careful aim, shooting my foe right in the eyeball.”
– Part of a ranged attack; Perception -5 vs AC; +5 damage. On a failure, -5 attack (instead of -5 damage).

These are all just examples. The idea is for players to come up with stunts on-the-fly and the DM have a relatively balanced guideline to resolve them.

Streamlined version; it’s just as complicated but no longer requires a check. Instead it is limited by how often you can do it, and what sort of stunts are available.

– 77IM

STUNT
When a player tries to perform some crazy maneuver to increase their odds or gain some small advantage in combat, you can resolve the attempt as a stunt. The player must be able to clearly explain what they are doing, and the DM has to agree that it could potentially help.

STUNT: Part of another action

* Part of an Action: You must be doing some other thing (attacking, moving, using a skill or power, or some other valid action) in order to stunt.
* Describe the Stunt: Say what your character is doing above and beyond the expectations for the action you are taking. It helps to take into account the current situation and circumstances. Be creative!
* Once Per Encounter, +1 Per Milestone: You can only stunt once per encounter. After reaching your first milestone, you can stunt twice per encounter, and each additional milestone lets you stunt one additional time per encounter (for example, if you’ve reached your 4th milestone, you can stunt 5 times during your next encounter). Taking an extended rest resets your number of stunts to 1 per encounter.
* Once Per Round: You can’t stunt twice in the same round.
* Requirement: Trained Skill or Highest Ability Score: You must have a trained skill relevant to the stunt you are performing — an amazing feat of Acrobatics or Dungeoneering or Insight. You can suggest which trained skill you are using but ultimately the DM decides whether or not it applies. Alternatively, you can perform stunts based upon your highest ability score (if you have multiple scores that are tied, you can use any of them), such as a feat of Strength or clever use of Intelligence. The DM can decide that such a stunt requires a trained skill, however. For example, if you describe your stunt as a back flip, and want to base it on Dexterity, the DM can rule that such a stunt requires training in Acrobatics.
* DM Decides the Consequences: You get a +2 bonus to one of the following: attack rolls, skill and ability checks, defenses, damage, or speed. This bonus lasts for the duration of the action. For damage, the bonus is doubled at 11th level (to +4) and tripled at 21st level (to +6).
* Be Creative!: The DM can use the guidelines above to allow other sorts of bonuses and penalties. For example, the stunt bonus may apply to one of your allies instead of yourself, or it may apply to something like a saving throw. The DM can also increase the bonus for stunts that are particularly awesome. The goal of the stunt rules is to tangibly reward player creativity without requiring it or allowing it to overshadow other elements of the game (such as powers, feats, and magic items).

Examples:

Flick of the Wrist: “I swiftly draw a concealed weapon and attack with it, catching my foe off-guard!”
– Part of a melee or thrown weapon attack; Requires training in Thievery; +2 to attack.

Body Slam: “I plow into my foe, driving him forcefully into the rock wall!”
– Part of a charge or a melee attack against a foe adjacent to a wall; Requires high Strength; +2 to damage.

Tumble: “I cartwheel past the enemies, avoiding their attacks!”
– Part of movement through threatened squares; Requires training in Acrobatics; +2 to defenses.

Dwarf Ramp: “I run up the dwarf’s shield and leap off his head to get extra distance!”
– Part of a running jump; Requires training in Acrobatics or Athletics; +3* squares of distance when jumping. (*Due to awesomeness.)

Cantrip-Up: “I distract my foe with a ghost sound — the roars and shouts of a second party coming up the corridor behind him — and then magic missile him in the back of the head!”
– Part of a magic missile attack; Requires training in Arcana or Bluff; +2 attack.

Called Shot: “I take careful aim, shooting my foe right in the eyeball.”
– Part of a ranged attack; Requires training in Perception; +2 damage.

These are all just examples. The idea is for players to come up with stunts on-the-fly and the DM have a relatively balanced guideline to resolve them.

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Change notes from 1.0 to 2.0:

2.0   – Levels 7-19 of Spiritualist Shaman powers
– Levels 22-29 of Warchief and Spiritual Shaman Powers
– Reduced Revitalizing Totem’s temporary hit points granted to 4 to ensure minions still pose a threat at early levels.
– Added level 16 utility powers and an Orc shaman feat
– Gutteral Response deals Thunder damage as appropriate to the keyword in the power.
– Added the Rain Caller Paragon path for Spiritualist Shamans

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I may grab some of these and the red skull or ‘obvious death’ markers.  I treat two bodies in a square as difficult terrain and being able to drop a big ol’ skull in the square rather than a couple of /’s to make an X would have greater visual impact and make it very obvious that hey someone died there.

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Anyway there’s a shaman class linked in this thread and if you’re looking for a Primal Leader then this might float your boat. It’s not finished, it only has levels 1-19 but that’s enough to get you started I’m sure.

A little bit of snippeting to get you started:

SHAMAN OVERVIEW
Characteristics:  You are a decent combatant, able
to survive well at any place on the battlefield.  Your
primary powers, called totems, allow you to boost
both your and your allies attacks, defenses, and other
important aspects.
Religion:  You may worship a known deity or a
nature spirit.  Avandra, Corellon, and Ioun all have
shaman followers.  Shamans who worship Moradin
often prefer to be called Skalds.  Kord respects
warchief shamans; although few, if any, worship him
Races:  Dragonborn make natural shamans of all
walks, and Dwarves see many varieties as well. 
Elves and Half-elves make decent Spir